Participatie, het verschil tussen een methode en een kritisch paradigma

Policy makers and funding agencies increasingly expect citizens to be actively involved in research, policy development and intervention design. This growing popularity requires us to stay sharp on the conceptualization of participation; do we (still) mean and intend the same thing when we talk about participation? Drawing on literature and many years of practical experience, we show that the meaning of participation has shifted over the years from a critical paradigm, centering on empowerment and critical questioning of power, to a search for methods to give vulnerable people a voice within existing structures. In this article, we argue why it is important to re-connect with the original critical paradigm.