Participatory budgeting and climate change: a bibliometric analysis

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-1451397/v1

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Participatory budgeting and climate change: a bibliometric analysis

https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1451397/v1

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Climate change is an undeniable and tangible reality with consequences that have gradually become more serious, for this reason, is necessary to find tools to prevent further damage from occurring. In this context that the Participatory Budget fits, which over the last few years, has been commonly used as a tool for mitigating and adapting to climate change. Thereupon, the scope of this study is to carry out a mapping of academic production related to participatory budgeting and climate change. For this purpose, we chose to use bibliometric techniques, using two software: Bliblioshiny by Bibliometrix and Vosviewer, making it possible to analyze citations, co-citations and text of articles obtained from Scopus and Web of Science databases. As for the results, it was possible to observe that despite the imminent need to study the themes, there is a tiny amount of works, indicating that there is still much to be done.

Participatory budgeting

Climate changes

Bibliometrics

Academic Production

Over the last few decades, changes in the planet's climate have intensified at a dizzying pace, raising great concerns about the future. It is no longer a problem for the next generations, but for the present, which requires solutions to be found to alleviate the gravity of the situation. And who is responsible for mitigating such a problem? Considering that climate change is mostly anthropogenic, responsibility belongs to all spheres of power, to States, to Local Power and also to citizens.

Citizen participation as a tool for mitigating climate change began to be evoked at the Rio 92 Conference, held in the early 1990s. Since then, the planet's climate situation has worsened considerably, making the role of citizens even more fundamental. From this perspective, it is interesting that policies and projects are created that include individuals in decision-making and participation contexts about climate change, and it is in this context that participatory budgeting fits.

The participatory budget is a tool for the democratization of democracy, which at first seems distant from the reality of climate change. Despite this, it is a tool that allows citizens to actively participate in the decisions of their governments, on the most varied social issues, and can therefore be a useful tool in the context of mitigating climate change and its effects.

In view of this, the article aims to analyze the state of the scientific literature on the correlation between participatory budgeting and climate change. By carrying out a bibliometric mapping, it is expected to analyze the existence or inexistence of studies that approach the themes together. It is known that both participatory budgeting and climate change are research trends, however, the study intends to go further, questioning: In what state is the scientific production directed to the fields of Participatory Budgeting and Climate Change, when studied simultaneously?

To answer the question, we chose to use bibliometric techniques, which allow us to identify the state of academic production on the themes, through the observation of articles obtained from the Scopus and Web of Science (WOS) databases. Furthermore, in terms of its structure, the study is divided into 3 main parts: the first presents the theoretical framework on which the article is based; the second part describes the methodology applied to the study; and the third part demonstrates the results obtained, followed by its discussion, conclusion and final remarks.

2.1 Climate changes

Since the dawn of time, even before the evolution of life, planet Earth has undergone climate change. It is a fact that climate is not static, this being one of the main motivations for the evolution of life (Issar and Zohar 2007). Over thousands of years, the Earth has experienced glacial and thawing periods, prolonged droughts and intense floods, and so many other phenomena that have culminated in the climate as it is today (Issar and Zohar 2007).

Human evolution itself is conditioned by climate change, for example, in the case of the transition from nomadism to a sedentary lifestyle, and the development of societies and civilizations (Issar and Zohar 2007). Frequently, it is possible to observe situations in which history demonstrates that climate cycles affected and even shaped human behavior, as in the case of the Golden Age of Ancient Greece and the Dark Ages in Ireland (Issar and Zohar 2007). In these contexts, the climate influenced both physical and psychological behaviors of individuals, but not only! It also influenced exogenous factors, such as the production of food, goods and wealth in the regions (Issar and Zohar 2007).

The understanding of these atmospheric phenomena implies, first of all, a differentiation between concepts, which are often taken as synonymous, namely: climate and weather. Weather in this context, can be defined as the instantaneous condition of the atmosphere in a certain place, and can be determined based on meteorological variables, such as temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind direction and speed, solar radiation and others (F. D. Santos 2021). In turn, climate is defined as the most frequent type of weather in a place, during an interval of several years, more precisely for a minimum period of 30 years, according to the World Meteorological Organization (F.D. Santos 2021). Well, in the poetic words of Hulme (2015, 176),

Weather has an immediacy and evanescence that climate does not have. Weather is constantly in flux; it is always both passing away and in renewal. Weather describes the instantaneous atmospheric conditions in which sentient creatures live and sense. Weather can be seen, heard, and felt […].

The study of climatic phenomena has gained strength in recent decades, as a result of the constant changes observed. It is imperative to emphasize that the climate is effectively inconstant and changeable, however, drastic and sudden changes cause concern, and therefore the need to understand their causes and consequences, becomes a priority in the scientific field (Hulme 2015). In reality, climate change is no longer what it used to be, since "(...) have been in a more or less constant state of expansion" (Aylett 2010, 478).

Friant (2019) emphasizes that the 21st century has brought unprecedented challenges with regard to climate change, a point of view that coincides with that of Somerville (2012), according to which the magnitude and speed of climate change overcome the worst scenario of previous estimates and projections. The cases of melting ice in Greenland and Antarctica, for example, are occurring at a dizzying rate, contributing to a sharp rise in sea levels (Somerville 2012). It is expected that by the year 2100 there will be a global increase of up to 1 meter in sea level, however, if the warming trend continues, the increase could reach up to 2 meters, causing catastrophes across the planet (Somerville 2012).

It should be noted that the Earth's climate system is composed of several interactive subsystems, namely the atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere and biosphere, which exchange energy and mass among themselves, which means that it is an open system (Santos 2021). It is also essential to clarify that most of the energy that feeds the system comes from the Sun, however, about 30% of everything that falls upon the planet is reflected to outer space, and the remaining 70% is absorbed and then reflected as infrared radiation (Santos 2021). In practical terms, the Earth's climate is dependent on a balance, that is, if it absorbs more energy than necessary, or if on the contrary it absorbs less, the result is respectively excessive warming or cooling (Santos 2021).

In this scenario, a relevant role is attributed to greenhouse gases (GGs), which are usually seen as villains, but in fact are indispensable for the climate balance of the planet. The Earth's atmosphere is naturally composed of certain GGs, namely water vapor (H₂O), carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O), the last three of which are also emitted anthropogenic, that is, by human activity (Santos 2021). Such gases are responsible for absorbing and emitting radiation from the Sun, for this reason, when there is a high concentration in the atmosphere, climatic imbalances occur, fundamentally related to the greenhouse effect, whose main consequence is the increase in the temperature of the planet (Santos 2021).

Although GG are part of the planet's atmospheric nature, the large-scale use of fossil fuels has increased the concentration of those that are harmful to the balance, namely CO₂ (Santos 2021). In the same context, the unbridled use of the soil, associated with high rates of deforestation have contributed to the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere (Santos 2021). In fact, the planet seems to be in a paradoxical context: on the one hand there is a scientific evolution like never seen before, science and discoveries are at levels previously unimaginable. On the other hand, such development has resulted in environmental exploitation at uncommon levels, accompanied by a lack of concern about applying such knowledge and resources to save the home of the human race (Calisto Friant 2019). The two sides of the same coin, the more one evolves, the more one destroys.

It is noteworthy that climate change has consequences in the most varied scenarios. Romsdahl, Blue, and Kirilenko (2018), argue that it is a problem of energy, public health, capitalism, agriculture, justice and water, in other words, it is at stake the existence or human extinction. In this circumstance, it is important to highlight the existence of a scientific consensus on the need to stop, or at least drastically reduce GG emissions so that the planet can remain without a collapse (Somerville 2012).

From the perspective of Somerville (2012), setting a target for reducing GHG emissions must be a political decision, which must come from governments, at a macro level, to reach citizens at a micro level. In the same sense, according to Sprain (2016), climate change, despite being a global problem, must also be thought of in smaller spheres, fundamentally within the scope of Local Power, in other words, it is a global problem with local responsibility.

Taking into account that the local power is closer to the citizens and therefore more aware of the community's problems, it is essential that there is a greater dedication in the search for ways to mitigate the problems arising from climate change Sprain (2016). Furthermore, the smaller and poorer the community is, the more drastic will be the consequences of climate change, which is why it is essential to find tools to mitigate the problems. And it is in this context that Participatory Budgeting fits in.

2.2 Participatory budgeting

The origin of the Participatory Budget is unanimously attributed to the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, and dates back to 1989 (Martin Calisto Friant 2019; Cohen 2012; Karner et al. 2019; Kempa and Kozłowski 2020). The project emerged after a process of redemocratisation of the country, in a context of political and social transformation promoted by the promulgation of the Federal Constitution of 1988 (Friant 2019). The project created by the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) “(…) decided to respond to both civil society’s demand for participation and the new constitutional opportunities with one of the most transformative experiments of local democracy at the time: participatory budgeting” (Friant 2019, 84).

Gomez (2013) emphasizes that the social context of the 1980s in Brazil was a determining factor for the emergence of policies to encourage participation, as a way of opposing the centralized State. With the end of the military dictatorship, in 1985, the country was in a real crisis in relation to Democracy, so it was essential to create measures for popular participation (Gomez et al., 2013). In this sense, “citizen participation was encouraged through the adoption of a complex system of citizen assemblies, supported by elected delegates and councilors, who were mandated to ensure greater inclusion of the most disadvantaged citizens” (Falanga et al. 2020, 277).

From the perspective of Walker (2013), when participatory budgeting was implemented, the belief spread that through political participation, there could be a fight against class inequality as a result of economic growth. Furthermore, this inequality was also mitigated due to the better distribution of municipal resources, resulting from the Participatory Budget (Isabel Brun-Martos & Lapsley 2016; Walker 2013). In this respect, the population has acquired greater decision-making power regarding the distribution of available public resources (Cabannes & Lipietz 2017).

Likewise, from the perspective of Kempa and Kozłowski (2020), participatory budgeting is essential to bring and engage citizens in public issues. Moreover, it is a tool that “(…) as it provides excellent information about the situation of a particular local government unit, and the availability of a wide range of information aff ects the eff ectiveness of strategic planning in local government” (Kempa & Kozłowski 2020, 65).

Besides, there is no doubt that participatory budgeting has varied and distinct functions. Kempa and Kozłowski (2020) list four different purposes, namely: a) shaping local government decisions so that they are more beneficial to the population; b) increased citizen participation; c) more information for the population of local management decisions; d) and finally, an educational function, which aims to teach and encourage citizens to collaborate in decision-making and the development of social projects.

In the context of climate change, the educational function stands out, since, in addition to giving voice and power to citizens, participatory budgeting can transform behaviors and shape realities.

2.3 Participatory budgeting and climate change

In recent decades, citizen participation in political life has been intensely evoked as a way of bringing citizens closer to decision makers (Santos et al. 2018). The idea that government institutions are at the center of decision-making is gradually being replaced by participatory governance (Sprain 2016). Weymouth et al. (2020, 3), highlights that participation “(…) is one of the few ways governments can influence political trust […]”, and in the context of climate change, citizen participation has become more relevant from the Rio 92 Declaration (Cohen 2012a; Sprain 2016).

First of all, it is necessary to clarify that the concept of participation is quite broad in the literature. In the perspective of Weymouth et al. (2020), it is necessary to distinguish between public and citizen participation, the former being described as “(…) the involvement of stakeholders in policies, programs, and plans of governments […]”; while the second is characterized by shaping the nature of the “(…) relationship that citizens have with the decisions of their democratic governments” (Weymouth et al. 2020, 3). In the same sense, Stober et al. (2021, 2), define that “participation commonly refers to the processes in which the public and other stakeholders are involved in making the decisions that affect them.

The literature defines at least two reasons to encourage participation: first, because it is a democratic right, and second, because it is also an instrument for improving public policies (Sprain 2016). In other words, there is a normative perspective, which makes it possible to reduce marginalization, increase public trust, enable and empower citizens; on the other hand, participation also serves to guarantee solutions adapted to the local context, as well as a higher quality of decisions (Sprain 2016). Likewise, for Bobbio (2019, 41) “public participation is thus a procedural tool which allows policymakers to include new actors (i.e., citizens) in a policy network and entrust them with some design-related tasks”.

In the climate change scenario, as mentioned above, citizen participation is fundamental and indispensable. According to Romsdahl et al. (2018), better understanding and managing the effects of climate change, as well as creating appropriate local policies, is highly dependent on citizen deliberations. Who can better understand the problems arising from climate change than the individuals who experience them?

Several programs to mitigate the effects of climate change that had the participation of citizens, had very positive results, as is the case of the Transition Town movement (Romsdahl et al. 2018). In Sprain perspective (2016, 63), “engaging the public in deliberation can greatly improve their understanding of climate change, including future projections, impacts and responses”. It is in this context that the relevance of participatory budgeting is established as a tool for mitigating the effects of climate change.

Touchton and Wampler (2014) describe that participatory budgeting is a powerful mechanism that allows power to reach people. However, when it comes to climate change, another aspect becomes more relevant, which is its educational nature (Bobbio, 2019). Climate change is a direct consequence of the behavior of individuals, thus, participatory processes that allow social learning and behavioral transformation are more efficient than deliberative programs, in which citizens are restricted to decision-making. The perspective of Sprain (2016) is quite relevant, in the context of participatory budgeting for climate change, when mentioning that

(…) social learning focuses on the process of the cocreation of knowledge, the convergence of goals, and the change of behaviour that comes from understanding something, which together suggest how process can transform a situation. This view of participation helps us understand how participation processes like deliberation can build adaptive capacity. (66)

Friant (2019), observing the case of the city of Porto Alegre, found that the implementation of participatory budgeting has achieved very positive results in raising the awareness of the population towards more sustainable behavior. By their deliberative nature, these programs empower citizens to make environmental decisions that are fairer and more appropriate to the social context of the municipality (Friant 2019). In other words, participatory budgeting “(...) associated with long-term institutional and political change—not just short-term shifts in funding priorities” (Touchton & Wampler 2014, 1458).

In addition, participatory budgeting also allows citizens to discuss their values and concerns about climate issues so that more effective policies can be developed. (Romsdahl et al. 2018). Indeed, participatory processes can "(...) assist in giving communities more voice in planning, such as deciding whether or not to adapt to climate change (...), as well as examining questions of power and influence [...]" (Romsdahl et al. 2018, 283). Moreover, collaboration in participatory budgeting processes results in changes in participants' mindsets and positioning with regard to public issues, namely through decreased political skepticism and increased willingness for climate action (Romsdahl et al. 2018)

From the point of view of Cohen (2012), the problem of climate change is more easily solved in the context of local government, with participatory budgeting being one of the most efficient tools for this. Not only with regard to the behavioral change of citizens, but also in terms of decision-making about methods of mitigation and adaptation to the effects of climate change (Cabannes 2021).

Ultimately, it is also considered a tool that inspires citizens to change, since “participants have reason to think, in attending, that their contributions will have an influence on the policies or measures subsequently pursued by the organizing body” (Cohen 2012b, 30). As their opinions and views are heard, citizens feel more inspired to participate and change their behavior on climate issues.

Based on this review, a deeper analysis of the existence or non-existence of the correlation between participatory budgeting and climate change in the literature becomes necessary. It is essential to verify if there are studies being carried out on such areas, as well as the evolution of the research field and which are the most influential articles and authors. Thus, the objective of the study is to evaluate the academic contributions on the themes, through a bibliometric analysis, according to the methodology demonstrated in the following section.

Bibliometric analysis is a research technique that allows assessing the status and evolution of certain themes (Campigotto-Sandri et al. 2020). It consists of a form of scientific mapping, which makes it possible to observe the results of previous research, without risk of bias on the part of the researcher. Through the use of bibliometric techniques, it is possible to assess how fields of expertise, disciplines and groups of articles are connected to each other (Zupic & Čater 2015). From the perspective of Zupic and Čater (2014), bibliometric methods always have a quantitative approach, which results in an increase in the quality of reviews, since the analysis processes are more transparent, systematic and devoid of subjectivity.

Bibliometric methods are commonly used to analyze the performance of research and publications by individuals or institutions, or even for the development of scientific mappings, whose objective is to reveal information about the structure and dynamics of scientific fields (Zupic & Čater 2015). Thus, bibliometric techniques enable the analysis of the state of research on certain themes, which is why it was the method selected for the study in question.

On this occasion, it is emphasized that the bibliometric methods are varied for each research context. Table 1 demonstrates the five analysis methods defined by Zupic and Čater (2015), of which the citation, co-citation and co-occurrence of words were used for the work.

Table 1

Summary of Bibliometric Methods
Method	Description	Unit of analysis
Citation	Evaluates the relevance of authors, documents or journals, based on citation indexes.		Documents Authors Periodicals
Cocitation	Correlates authors, journals, and documents, based on how many times they are simultaneously cited.		Documents Authors Periodicals
Bibliographic coupling	It correlates authors, documents and journals, having as a parameter the indexes of shared references.		Documents Authors Periodicals
Co-autorship	Connects article co-authorships.		Authors
Keyword co-occurence	Analyzes the co-occurrence of terms when they appear in the same title, abstract or keyword list.	Keywords

Table 1

Summary of Bibliometric Methods Source (Adapted from Zupic and Čater (2015))

In addition to bibliometric methods, Zupic and Čater (2015) also establish the most fundamental steps to be carried out during a bibliometric analysis. Table 2 lists the steps followed throughout the study.

Table 2

Stages of bibliometric research
Stage	Developed activities
Research project	Definition of the research question and choice of the appropriate bibliographic method.
Compilation of bibliometric data	Choice of research keywords; Selection of the database and collection of files.
Analysis	Selection, grouping and filtering of texts through the Bibliometrix package, from the statistical software R Studio; Note the results in the Bibliometrix package.
Visualization	Demonstration of data through graphs and tables obtained through the Bibliometrix and VOSviewer package.
Evaluation of results	Selection of VOSviewer software for viewing results.

Table 2

Stages of bibliometric research (Adapted from Zupic and Čater (2015))

The first stage of the study development process (research project) consisted of elaborating the research question and choosing the most appropriate bibliographic method to reach its answer. In this sense, the investigation aims to answer – “In what state is the scientific production directed to the fields of Participatory Budgeting and Climate Change, when studied simultaneously?”. To answer this question, we chose to use the bibliometric method.

The next stage of the investigation (compilation of bibliometric data) began with the definition of the keywords to be searched. In this case, two configurations were selected, given the existence of two nomenclatures, in this sense, they were used for the searches: (“Participatory budget”) AND (“Climate Change”), and also (“Participatory Budgeting”) AND (“Climate Change”). It should be noted that the objective of the study is to verify the existence of scientific literature that correlates participatory budgeting with climate change, which is why we chose to use the Boolean operator AND.

In order to reach as many studies as possible, the search was also carried out in two different databases: Scopus and Web of Science, since each one presented different result at the time they were consulted (January 27, 2022). Furthermore, the terms were searched in all fields, and exclusively in the advanced search mode, respecting the writing settings of each database.

In this sense, it is noteworthy that Scopus has a considerably higher number of articles when compared to Web of Science. There is also a difference in terms of the searched terms, with “Participatory Budgeting” being broader than “Participatory Budget”, the latter being exempt from results in the Web of Science, as shown in Table 3. In addition, the documents obtained from the research, were restricted only to articles, which are the objects of the bibliometric analysis.

Table 3

Searched terms and results
Database	Terms	Results
SCOPUS	("Participatory budget") AND ("climate change")	46 articles
SCOPUS	("Participatory budgeting") AND ("climate change")	165 articles
WOS	"Participatory budget" AND "climate change"	No results
WOS	"Participatory budgeting" AND "climate change"	3 articles

Table 3: Searched terms and results

Subsequently, the third stage of the research (analysis) began with the selection of works to be used in the bibliometric analysis. At first, all articles obtained in the research were selected, that is, a total of 214 documents. Subsequently, using the R statistical software (Version 4.1.2), the documents were compiled into a single file, excluding duplicates, so that 194 articles remained. From this data, and through R Studio's Bibliometrix Package, it became possible to analyze the most cited articles, collaboration networks, the most relevant terms and other information observed in step 4.

Regarding the specifics of VOSviewer, it is crucial to highlight that the software measures distances between items, through a multidimensional scaling. This means that the stronger the relationship between the items, the more times they were cited together. Furthermore, the software also conditions the size of the items, depending on the number of individual citations, that is, the larger the item, the more times it was cited, as will be seen in the following section. Finally, the fifth stage of the research (evaluation of the results) is divided into the presentation and discussion of the results, as well as the final considerations.

The use of the Bibliometrix package of the R software makes it possible to collect data and relevant information about the articles obtained in the research. In this sense, graph 1, prepared through Biblioshiny, presents the annual scientific production rates on the researched topic. Note that the X axis represents the time interval in which there were publications, while the Y axis presents the volume of articles produced per year.

Graphic 1

Annual scientific production

Scientific production on participatory budgeting and climate change began in 2009, and as the graph shows, the trend has continued to grow over the years, with an average growth rate of 7.3%. However, in the years 2011, 2015 and 2020 there are percentages of decline in production, while the peak of academic production took place in 2021, with a total of 54 articles.

In addition to the annual production, through citation analysis, it is possible to observe the impact of journals, groups of scientists and articles. Among all the journals analyzed, it was noted that Sustainability has the highest number of publications, with a total of 17 articles, being respectively the journal that has the highest H-index, an index that measures the impact and productivity of journals (see Table 4). On the other hand, out of a total of 144 journals analyzed, 83.3% (120) have only one article published on the subject.

Table 4

Journals with the highest production and H-index
Journal	Number of articles produced	H-index
Sustainability (Switzerland)	17	5
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research	5	5
Cities	4	2
Environment and Urbanization	4	2
Energy Research and Social Science	3	3
Habitat International	3	3
Journal of the American Planning Association	3	1
Sustainable Development	3	2
Ambio	2	2
Climatic Change	2	2
Critical Perspectives on Accounting	2	1

Furthermore, it is crucial to observe the scope of the journals that most published articles related to participatory budgeting and climate change. The vast majority are focused on sustainability and sustainable development, as is the case with Sustainability, Ambio and Sustainable Development; or even urban planning, such as the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Cities, Environment and Urbanization. There is still one case in particular, whose scope is the production of research related to climate change, namely the Climatic Change journal.

Table 4: Journals with the highest production and H-index

Likewise, it is essential to highlight the most cited articles in the Scopus database, being the study carried out by Vanessa Watson (2009), The panned city sweeps the poor away: Urban planning and 21st century urbanization, which since its publication has been cited 315 times, an average of 22.5 citations per year. An interesting aspect is that the article does not specifically refer to the central theme of the research, although it addresses each of the themes, it does not address the correlation between them. It should also be noted that only two of the most cited articles were published in the journals that produce the most: A review of the main challenges to urban sustainability (Ramin, 2010) and Inclusive urbanization: Can the 2030 Agenda be delivered without it? (McGranahan, 2016), as seen in Table 5.

Table 5

Most cited articles
Author	Title				Citations (year)
Watson, Vanessa	The planned city sweeps the poor away: Urban planning and 21st century urbanisation	Progress in Planning, 72(3)	2009	315	22,5
Blanco, Hilda et.al	Shaken, shrinking, hot, impoverished and informal: Emerging research agendas in planning	Progress in Planning, 72(4)	2009	110	0,5
Williams, Andrew et.al	Neoliberalism, Big Society, and Progressive Localism	Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 46(12)	2014	105	11,6
Touchton, Michael et.al	Improving Social Well-Being Through New Democratic Institutions	Comparative Political Studies, 47(10)	2013	86	9,5
Keivani, Ramin	A review of the main challenges to urban sustainability	International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development, 1(1–2)	2010	65	5,0
Solangi, Yasir Ahmed et.al	An Integrated Delphi-AHP and Fuzzy TOPSIS Approach toward Ranking and Selection of Renewable Energy Resources in Pakistan	Processes, 7(2)	2019	59	14,7
Marques, Pedro et.al	Social innovation in question: The theoretical and practical implications of a contested concept	Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 36(3)	2017	57	11,4
McGranahan, Gordon et.al	Inclusive urbanization: Can the 2030 Agenda be delivered without it?	Environment and Urbanization, 28(1)	2016	56	8,00
Royo, Sonia et.al	E-Participation and Environmental Protection: Are Local Governments Really Committed?	Public Administration Review, 74(1)	2013	54	6,00
Aylett, Alex	Conflict, Collaboration and Climate Change: Participatory Democracy and Urban Environmental Struggles in Durban, South Africa	International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 34(3)	2010	50	3,84

Table 5: Most cited articles

From a different perspective, Fig. 1 presents the authors who published the most studies on the subject under analysis. The X axis corresponds to the years in which each study was published, while the Y axis corresponds to its authors. In the figure, it is possible to observe the existence of circles that represent the quorum of published articles, which means that the larger the circle, the more publications the author has. It is also noted the existence of lines that connect the circles and represent the constancy of publication of the articles, that is, the more constant the line, the more solid is the quantity of publications by the author. In this vein, both the frequency and the number of published articles can be seen in Fig. 1.

It can be seen from the observation in Fig. 1 that research in the scope of participatory budgeting and climate change is quite sporadic, because only two authors, London and Satterthwaite, maintained publications for a longer period. Still in this context, it is notable that only in the year 2021, the number of publications was high, while in other years, publications are scarce.

In turn, with regard to the comparison between the publication and citation indices by countries, it can be seen in Table 6 that, in a way, there is a proportionality relationship between the country with the most publications and the most citations. However, this proportionality only materializes in the first two countries, because the United Kingdom is the country with the highest number of publications (31), and is also the country whose authors are most cited (518), the United States has the second largest number of articles (31), and consequently the second largest number of authors cited (479). In the other cases, there is no proportionality relationship, since the countries that produce the most do not have the largest number of authors cited. This is what happens with Canada (8), which despite having a higher number of articles than China (5), is below this in terms of the number of authors cited (Canada – 71; China – 75).

Table 6

Production and citation by country
Country	Articles produced	Country	Number of country citations
United Kingdom	31	United Kingdom	518
United States of America	30	United States of America	479
Netherlands	10	South Africa	318
Portugal	10	Spain	94
Canada	8	China	75
Espain	8	Canada	71
Autralia	7	Australia	59
Italy	7	Belgium	54
Brazil	5	Portugal	51
China	5	Brazil	47

Table 6: Production and citation by country

Besides, to using Biblioshiny from the Bibliometrix package, another bibliometric analysis software was also used, namely VOSviewer, as mentioned. This tool allows the creation of bibliometric maps, which constitute a graphical representation of correlations between the articles under analysis (Van Eck & Waltman, 2010). The construction of maps in this software uses the VOS mapping technique, which translates into a visualization of the similarities between the documents (Van Eck & Waltman, 2010). The purpose of graphical construction of maps is to make the interpretation of information easier and more practical (Van Eck & Waltman, 2010).

The maps represented in the study – Figs. 2 and 3 – are representations of co-citation and co-occurrence networks, respectively. It is important to note that in the graphical representation circles connected by lines are observed, with the former representing the items, while the latter represent the connections between the items. Meanwhile, the larger the circle, the more relevant the corresponding item and the more times it was repeated in the articles, and the denser the line, the stronger the connection between them (Campigotto-Sandri et al., 2020).

The map represented in Fig. 3 constitutes a network of co-citations, of the authors that were most often cited in articles, that is, the most relevant authors. For the creation of the map, only authors who have been cited 20 or more times were selected, resulting in the selection of 38 studies, divided into five groups or clusters, identified by colors.

In group 1, represented by the color yellow, the studies carried out by Takayuki Ito (2014) and Alex Karner (2013) are the most relevant, having been cited 40 and 27 times respectively. Furthermore, based on the observation of the most cited studies, it is noted that the central theme of the group is the participation of citizens. In turn, group 2 corresponding to the color blue, has as its central axis studies on the Participatory Budget, with the most cited articles by Gianpaolo Baiocchi (2005), with 38 citations, and Elinor Ostrom (2003), with 37 citations.

The third group, demarcated by the color red, deals mainly with climate change, more precisely in the context of mitigation, adaptation and urban planning. The most relevant works in the cluster are those by Harriet Bulkeley (2007) and David Satterthwaite (2020), with 37 and 35 citations respectively. Group 4, represented by the color green, is related to citizenship, participatory communication and also participatory processes. An interesting factor is that the most cited authors among all belong to this group, namely Archon Fung (2001), cited 72 times, followed by John S. Dryzek (2009), with 46 citations.

Finally, group 5 in the figure, represented by the color purple, is characterized by having the lowest number of cited works. The most relevant authors of the group are Jürguem Habermas (1989) and Judy Brown (2009), both with 30 citations, and their works have as their central theme the participation of citizens in public finances, as well as deliberative engagement in public decision-making. (See Fig. 2).

Figure 2: Most referenced articles in publications on participatory budgeting and climate change together in Scopus and WOS databases

Considering that the objective of the study is to evaluate the academic production on participatory budgeting and climate change together, it is also crucial to carry out a textual analysis of the articles, more precisely on the most common keywords used by the authors. In the foreground, through Biblioshiny, it was possible to obtain a graph that presents the ten most frequent keywords in the articles, as seen in graph 2. This is one of the ways to identify the central themes of the articles researched, and to verify if in fact, participatory budgeting and climate change are objects of research.

Graphic 2

Most common keywords by Authors

From the analysis of the 194 articles that make up the research quorum, it was found that the keyword most used by the authors is Governance, used 14 times throughout the texts. Although the search terms were Participatory Budget/Budgeting and Climate change, these are not the ones that occupy the main position in the articles, with climate change being used as a keyword 13 times and participatory budgeting only 9 times.

Corroborating the graph, it was decided to create a bibliometric map in the VOSviewer software, which enabled the graphical representation of the information, dividing the terms into groups. It is crucial to highlight that the authors' keywords were also considered, with a total of 751 terms. To define which ones would be represented on the map, we chose to use the co-occurrence of terms, that is, words that appeared together in the articles, requiring at least five co-occurrences. Thus, the result was a map with 18 co-occurring terms, subdivided into five groups.

The same characteristics apply to the case, that is, the larger the circle, the more times the term was cited. The lines represent the correlations between them, that is, the denser the line, the more times the terms appear together. And the color groups represent the thematic connections. It is noted that similarly to what was shown in graph 2, the terms governance and climate change appear as the most cited, while participatory budgeting does not have the same prominence (see Fig. 3).

Bearing in mind the expectation that participatory budgeting and climate change had been worked out together, there is an inexorable disappointment in the observation of the bibliometric map, this because the fields do not appear correlated. It can be seen that climate change, a term present in cluster 5 (red), appears related to urban planning and local governments, but not to democratic participation. From another perspective, participatory budgeting, despite not being directly related to climate change, appears connected to sustainability and sustainable development.

The other groups, despite not being directly connected to climate change and participatory budgeting, are indirectly connected by addressing citizen participation and engagement, participatory democracy and sustainable development goals.

4.1 Discussion of results

The bibliometric analysis of the academic literature on the correlation between participatory budgeting and climate change resulted in a dichotomy. On the one hand, it was possible to obtain a reasonable number of articles (194), published in important journals and by respected authors. However, on the other hand, in practical reality, such articles do not actually correspond to the objective of the research, because, for the most part, they are related to other themes.

In the foreground, and having as a parameter the annual production rate, there seems to be a positive balance, given that the trend of production of studies in this area is increasing. However, when looked at more deeply, the articles that served as the basis for the analysis generally have more comprehensive approaches, such as citizen participation, participatory democracy, participatory governance, sustainability and sustainable development.

Note, for example, in the list of the most cited articles, there is none that specifically refers to participatory budgeting and climate change. Although the themes may eventually be addressed, they are always in different fields of studies, not correlated. The same occurs when considering the authors most cited in the references, since their works also do not address the themes together at any time. Even within the scope of keywords, it is possible to notice this lack of correlation, in addition to the fact that the participatory budget does not even play a leading role among the researches, being rarely mentioned.

Among all the articles analyzed, only two specifically address participatory budgeting related to climate change: Can participatory emissions budgeting help local authorities to face climate change? by Tom Cohen (2012), and Contributions of participatory budgeting to climate change adaptation and mitigation: current local practices across the world and lessons from the field, by Yves Cabannes (2021). The first case is more restrictive, since the article aims to expose the existence of a participatory budget project aimed at the emission of greenhouse gases, carried out by the local authorities of the United Kingdom. On the other hand, the second article is more comprehensive, since it evaluates 15 cases of Participatory Budgeting for Climate Change around the world, demonstrating the relevance of carrying out more studies on the themes

Final considerations and future research perspectives

The bibliometric analysis of the literature showed that studies on participatory budgeting correlated with climate change are still in an embryonic state. In fact, only two of all the articles observed addressed the themes together, while the others had different themes. It was noted that there is a gap in the academic literature, which needs to be filled, considering that both climate change and participatory budgeting are emerging research topics.

In view of this, for future research it is essential that there is a dedication to: i) analyzing cases of (in) success around the world; ii) understand why some municipalities apply these projects and others do not; iii) verify that the participatory budgeting projects to mitigate the effects of climate change have achieved the expected result; iv) to study the role of state / regional / local power in the implementation of participatory budgeting processes for climate change, v) to analyze whether the behavior of citizens is transformed by participation in projects of this kind, both from an environmental and a democratic perspective. In effect, the maximum objective of the participatory budgeting is to give citizens the possibility of transforming their social environment, through the strengthening of Democracy, so using it also as a means of transforming the climate change scenario, can be an excellent initiative.

Ethical Approval

All authors agree that the manuscript complies with the ethical standards established by the journal.

Consent to Participate and publish

All authors agreed with the content and gave explicit consent for the submission and publication of the manuscript in the journal.

Authors Contributions

All authors contributed to the conception and design of the study. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Gleidcy Helle dos Reis Rocha. The first version of the manuscript was written by Gleidcy Helle dos Reis Rocha and revised by Claúdia Costa, both commenting on previous versions of the manuscript. And both authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Funding

The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.

Competing Interests

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available as they were prepared by the authors themselves, but are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Graphics 1-2 are available in the Supplementary Files section.

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Graphic 1: Annual scientific production
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Graphic 2: Most common keywords by Authors

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Participatory budgeting and climate change: a bibliometric analysis

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1. Introduction

2. Theoretical Reference

2.1 Climate changes

2.2 Participatory budgeting

2.3 Participatory budgeting and climate change

3. Methodology

4. Results And Discussions

4.1 Discussion of results

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