Looking inside public involvement: how is it made so ineffective and can we change this?

Communities and community groups across Britain are faced withever-increasing opportunities to ‘participate’,yet such engagement is widely viewed as ineffective and themotives behind it viewed with suspicion. This article suggeststhat ineffectiveness is often at least partly the result ofdecisions that are taken within the wider policy-making processesthat develop and surround public involvement, and presents away of analysing such management. This analysis also pointsto a strategy for being more effective, through attempting tobecome more active players in the larger policy-making ‘game’.