Research and Writing
Most of my research and writing has focused on participatory budgeting and planning, community councils, social forums, and democratic learning in the US, Canada, UK, Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela. My first (and continuing) research project was on participatory budgeting experiences in Canada. In 2005 I worked with the organization Educating Cities and Daniel Schugurensky on a study of democratic learning and participatory democracy in Rosario, Argentina. In 2006 I went to Venezuela to research communal councils, an emerging national experiment in participatory democracy. For my dissertation, I am studying how games and game mechanics can be used to make community participation processes more democratic and appealing. In other words, how to make democracy fun.

As an activist scholar, I try to write in an accessible style and engage with discussions in academia, policy circles, and social movements. In addition to publishing in several journals and magazines, I have blogged for the progressive US policy blog Foresight, the Center for Community Change's Movement Vision Lab, and ParticipatoryBudgeting.org.

Publications:
" What Games Can Teach Us About Democratic Participation: Participatory Urban Development in Rosario’s Villas," in Examining the Places We Live: Slums and Urban Poverty in the Developing World, Washington DC: The World Bank, forthcoming.

" Learning Democracy through Participatory Budgeting: Who Learns What and So What?," in Elizabeth Pinnington & Daniel Schugurensky (eds.), Citizenship Learning and Participatory Democracy Throughout the World, Cambridge, MA: Cambridge Scholarly Press, 2009.

"Participatory Budgeting in North America: The Case of Guelph, Canada," (with Elizabeth Pinnington & Daniel Schugurensky) Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting and Financial Management, 2/3(21), 2009.

"Money Talks: How Participatory Budgeting Can Transform Politics," Grassroots Economic Organizing, 2(1), Summer 2008.

"Four Lessons for Progressives from Venezuela's Recent Referendum", VenezuelaAnalysis.com, December 6, 2007.

"Could Participatory Budgeting Work in the United States?," (with Gianpaolo Baiocchi) The Good Society, 16(1), 2007.

"La Dimensión Educativa de la Democracia Local: El Caso del Presupuesto Participativo," (with Daniel Schugurensky) Revista Temas y Debates, 13, 2007.

"Participatory Budgeting: A New Tool for Democratic Decision Making," (with Jez Hall) Transformation Journal, no. 5, Spring 2007. (article on participatory budgeting in the UK) [PDF version]

"Una Nación de Democracia Participativa? Los Consejos Comunales y el Sistema Nacional de Planificación en Venezuela", (with Juan Carlos Rodríguez) Revista SIC, 693, April 2007. [PDF version]

"Communal Councils in Venezuela: Can 200 families revolutionize democracy?", Z Magazine, 20(3), March 2007. [PDF version]

"Who Learns What in Participatory Democracy? Participatory Budgeting in Rosario, Argentina", (with Daniel Schugurensky) in Ruud van der Veen, Danny Wildemeersch, Janet Youngblood and Victoria Marsick (eds.), Democratic Practices as Learning Opportunities, Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2007. [PDF of earlier version of chapter, presented in 2005]

"Let the People Decide: Transformative Community Development through Participatory Budgeting in Canada," Shelterforce, 146, Summer 2006. [PDF version]

"Participatory Budgeting in Canada: Democratic Innovations in Strategic Spaces", (with Estair Van Wagner) The Transnational Institute, 2006. [PDF version]

"Why the World Social Forum Needs to Be Less Like Neoliberalism", Toward Freedom, January 16, 2006. [PDF version]

"Planning Open Space: The World Social Forum and Neoliberalism", Progressive Planning, 163, Spring 2005.

"Up, Down, Inside, Outside: (New) Directions for Progressive Planning in the U.S.", Progressive Planning, 162, Winter 2005.

"Building a Democratic City: How Participatory Budgeting Can Work in Toronto", City of Toronto, Community Engagement Unit, 2004.

"Beyond Civil Society: Public Engagement Alternatives for Canadian Trade Policy", Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy, 2003.

Presentations
“Can Participatory Budgeting Work in the U.S.?” The New York State Political Science Association conference, New York, April 25, 2009.

“Participatory Budgeting: Public Control over Public Money,” The City from Below conference, Baltimore, March 29, 2009.

“Participatory Budgets: From Venezuela to the U.S.,” Forum on the Solidarity Economy, Amherst, MA, March 21, 2009.

“Games as Democracy? Participatory Planning Games in Rosario, Argentina,” Janey Program in Latin American Studies Workshop, The New School for Social Research, February 10, 2009.

“Games, Play, and Democracy,” Politics in Progress Workshop, The New School for Social Research, November 3, 2008.

“Making Democracy Fun: Using Games for Democratic Decision-Making,” Learning Democracy by Doing: Alternative Practices in Citizenship Learning and Participatory Democracy, University of Toronto, October 17, 2008.

"Playing with Power: Empowered Political Games in Participatory Democratic Processes," The American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, Boston, April 16, 2008.

"Democratizing Democracy through Participatory Budgeting," The North American New Humanist Forum, New York City, November 17, 2007.

"Participatory Budgeting in Canada and Around the World," Participatory Budgeting Workshop at the City of Kitchener, Ontario (Canada), June 13, 2007.

"Communal Councils in Venezuela: Nationalizing Participatory Planning," Planners Network 2007 Conference Race, Class and Community Recovery: From the Neighborhood to the Nation and Beyond, New Orleans, June 2, 2007.

"Presupuestos Participativos: Una Herramienta para la Gestión Democrática," The conference El IVU y el Desarrollo Municipal:1era Conferencia sobre las Oportunidades que brinda el IVU, Sociedad Puertorriqueńa de Planificación (Puerto Rican Planning Society), San Juan, Puerto Rico, May 24, 2007.

"Presupuestos Participativos en Norteamérica: Extensiones horizontales y submunicipales," International Conference on Participatory Budgeting, Málaga, Spain, March 30, 2007. [espańol] [english]

"Communal Councils in Venezuela," The Left Forum, New York City, March 10, 2007.

"Co-ops and Participatory Democracy," 2nd National Conference of Democratic Workplaces, New York City, October 13, 2006.

"Communal Councils in Venezuela: Participatory Democracy at the National Level?", Local Democracy Convention, Madison, Wisconsin, October 1, 2006.

"Participatory Budgeting with Youth," Planners Network conference Tending the Garden: From Grassroots to Green Roofs, Chicago, June 10, 2006.

"Who Learns What in Participatory Democracy?" The Canadian Society for the Study of Education conference at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, York University, Toronto, May 30, 2006.

"Participatory Budgeting in North America," The Left Forum, New York City, March 11, 2006.

With Daniel Schugurensky, "Learning citizenship and democracy through participatory budgeting: The case of Rosario, Argentina", Democratic Practices as Learning Opportunities: Comparing International Experiences & Understandings, Teachers College/Columbia University, New York City, November 4th, 2005. [powerpoint presentation] [PDF of paper presented]

"Participatory Budgeting in Canada", The Alternatives forum From Local Action to Global Citizenship, Montreal, September 10, 2005.

"Aprendiendo ciudadanía y democracia a través del presupuesto participativo: El caso de Rosario", Participatory Budgeting Workshop at the Municipality of Rosario, Argentina, August 11, 2005.

Policy and Planning Work
When not researching or teaching, I have worked as a consultant and advocate on issues of community development, urban planning, youth participation, and participatory budgeting. From 2000 to 2002 I served as a full-time program advisor with the NGO ETP Slovakia, working mainly on a UNDP community development program for Eastern Slovakia's marginalized Romany communities and a DFID environmental planning and training program. After leaving Slovakia, I completed a Masters in Planning from the University of Toronto, in the process preparing policy reports for the Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy, the City of Toronto's Sustainability Roundtable, and the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario. I have worked with Project for Public Spaces in New York and Planning Action in Toronto, developing campaigns and resources on community-based planning. As a steering committee member of Planners Network since 2003, I have helped build an international network of planners, academics, and activists who use planning as a tool for social justice. More recently, I have focused on youth participation in planning, through work with BCUE and the Young Planners Network.

Since 2003, most of my policy work has focused on participatory budgeting. While in Toronto, I prepared a report on participatory budgeting for the City's Community Engagement Unit, and worked with community organizations on a city-wide participatory budgeting campaign. In 2005, I launched an international participatory budgeting network, which has evolved into the organization The Participatory Budgeting Project, which I coordinate with Gianpaolo Baiocchi. This work has led me to advise several cities and organizations on implementing participatory budgeting processes.