From a Text to Practice and Back Again. Making Knowledge(s) Work for Participatory Budgeting in Poland

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to provide an insight into practices of producing and translating knowledge that is intended to improve the work of participatory budgeting in Poland. From the onset, the knowledge processes described are no flat or transparent accounts. Rather, they should be perceived as profoundly performative, that is, entailing several translations of various types of knowledge together with the very conditions in which they are supposed to operate. The initially launched knowledges are supposed to eventually turn into a fairly coherent, non-imposing, well-embedded framework for thinking and acting. The success is then largely dependent on how knowledges are being inscribed, enacted and embodied in a complex and dynamic environment.