Designing economic democracy Boston Ujima Project's participatory allocation process

This client-based thesis analyzes Participatory Budgeting processes in two cities to help guide the institutional design of Boston Ujima Project's participatory allocation process. Grassroots-led organization Boston Ujima Project is developing a democratically-governed Capital Fund by integrating community participation in deliberation and decision-making at various stages of the investment process. Broadly speaking, the three democratic dimensions of the Fund are those that ensure meaningful participation by low-income communities of color most impacted by the investments, safeguard accountability to those communities, and integrate relevant forms of expertise, including residents' expertise, throughout the decision-making process. Drawing from case studies of Participatory Budgeting in Porto Alegre and New York City, this paper provides conceptual frameworks and recommendations for the institutional design of Ujima's participatory allocation process.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Cohn, Libbie Dina

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Karl Seidman.

• Urban Studies and Planning.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/113805

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/113805