The Participation Budget as an Indicator of Local Community Activity in the Reconstruction of Selected City Space in the Świętokrzyski Region Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Abstract: The research problem of article is to present participatory budgeting as a modern tool for reconstruction of urban space. They focus benefits of them in small cities and observes its functioning before and in the conditions of pandemic COVID-19. Article indicates the cities of the Świętokrzyskie region in the years 2019-2020 as the subject of particular interest. The main hypothesis of work assumes that the COVID-19 pandemic time only exacerbated the attendance problem related to the participation of urban population in the participatory budget in Poland. Activity of local society in the reconstruction of urban space with help of a participatory budget, requires many years of work of local authorities, expanding knowledge about its functioning and the benefits resulting from participation in its creation and implementation. The methodological foundation of article is analysis of methods of participatory budgeting used in Poland and tools of interaction with society in order to disseminate them. The article also uses local data on implementation of participatory budgets in cities in the Świętokrzyskie region, archival and available as part of public statistics.