Difference between Participation and Engagement
If someone asked you what is the difference between participation and engagement, would you be able to answer? Many people confuse the terms, so CitizenLab prepared an article on the topic.
So, what is the difference between participation and engagement?
We decided to put things simply in case you do not have time to read the full article.
Citizen engagement is a top-down initiative of a formal nature.
Citizen participation is a bottom-up initiative that comes from the citizens themselves.
They both share the same goal which is improving public service deliveries and policy projects by involving more people in the dialogue with the government. The main difference is that both are not initiated by the same actors.
Educational articles series "what's the difference?"
The blog post about the difference between participation and engagement was prepared by CitizenLab as a part of the educational series titled "What's the difference?" Other topics discussed are as follows:
What’s the difference between deliberative and participatory democracy?
What is the difference between artificial and collective intelligence?
What’s the difference between “Civic Tech” and “GovTech”?
You are more than welcome to proceed to read them all or share with someone who might be interested in the topic!
One more thing to add is that whether you belong to the local government and want to engage more community members, or you are in fact a community member who wants to improve the dialogue with your local government, you can always learn what CitizenLab has to offer!















