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A participatory process is a sequence of participatory activities (e.g. first filling out a survey, then making proposals, discussing them in face-to-face or virtual meetings, and finally prioritizing them) with the aim of defining and making a decision on a specific topic.
Examples of participatory processes are: a process of electing committee members (where candidatures are first presented, then debated and finally a candidacy is chosen), participatory budgets (where proposals are made, valued economically and voted on with the money available), a strategic planning process, the collaborative drafting of a regulation or norm, the design of an urban space or the production of a public policy plan.
[Safe(r) Spaces] Intersectional Inclusion
Designing participation around intersecting realities, access needs, and lived barriers
About this process
Intersectional inclusion means recognising that people experience participation differently, and actively addressing the visible and invisible barriers that shape who can take part, how, and on what terms.
A safe(r) space should be designed with intersecting realities in mind. People do not experience participation in the same way: gender, race, disability, class, migration status, age, language, care responsibilities, digital access, and other power structures shape who can take part, how, and on what terms.
Intersectional inclusion means recognising these differences and actively addressing both visible and invisible barriers across digital, linguistic, sensory, social, physical, and temporal conditions. In this sense, accessibility is not an added feature or a technical requirement to be checked at the end. It is a condition for meaningful participation.
Reference: inspire-PART-2026-05-15