TY - JOUR A1 - Dean, Rikki John T1 - Control or influence? Conflict or solidarity? : understanding diversity in preferences for public participation in social policy decision making T2 - Social policy and administration N2 - Participatory policy making is a contested concept that can be understood in multiple ways. So how do those involved with participatory initiatives make sense of contrasting ideas of participation? What purposes and values do they associate with participatory governance? This paper reflects on a Q‐method study with a range of actors, from citizen activists to senior civil servants, involved with participatory initiatives in U.K. social policy. Using principal components analysis, supplemented with data from qualitative interviews, it identifies three shared participation preferences: participation as collective decision making, participation as knowledge transfer, and participation as agonism. These preferences demonstrate significant disagreements between the key informants, particularly concerning the objectives of participation, how much power should be afforded to the public, and what motivates people to participate. Their contrasting normative orientations are used to highlight how participatory governance theory and practice frequently fails to take seriously legitimate diversity in procedural preferences. Moreover, it is argued that, despite the diversity of preferences, there is a lack of imagination about how participation can function when social relations are conflictual. KW - citizen engagement KW - democratic innovation KW - discursive institutionalism KW - procedural preferences KW - public participation KW - Q‐method Y1 - 2018 UR - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/58321 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-583215 SN - 1467-9515 N1 - Funding information ESRC, Grant/Award Number: n/a PhD project N1 - Postprint, zuerst erschienen in, Social policy and administration 53.2019; S. 170– 187, doi:10.1111/spol.12445 VL - 2019 IS - 53 SP - 170 EP - 187 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Oxford [u.a.] ER -