Identifying Participatory Governance Methods and its Socio-cultural Tools Using Content Analysis Approach

Participatory governance is one of the successful approaches in public management and community administration. This approach reduces many challenges and problems in society and leads to an increase in social capital. To solve complex and multi-layered social issues and problems, successful governments work hard to improve public participation. But sometimes the lack of knowledge of effective methods and tools in this approach makes it not optimally used. In this article, the methods and tools of participatory governance in the socio-cultural field are examined. The method of this research is content analysis and using this method, data has been collected and checked with the help of library and internet sources, and then, by analyzing the collected data, the methods and tools of participatory governance have been extracted. In the following, with the help of 32 experts and academic and organizational experts in this field, the desired components have been identified with 17 indicators and in two main categories of methods and tools. The findings show that 8 methods of voting, surveying and polling, consultation, collective decision-making, production of common literature, networking and team building, information sharing, and collective work are among the most important methods of implementing participatory governance and 9 tools such as social media, social innovators, voluntary groups, a system of criticisms and suggestions, virtual platforms, educational texts, art, commanding good and forbidding evil and holding meetings are among the most important social and cultural tools of participatory governance in the country.