Includes bibliographical references and index.

Foreword / John Gaventa -- Spaces for change? The politics of participation in new democratic arenas / Andrea Cornwall and Vera Schattan P. Coelho -- The inclusion and representation in the participatory sphere -- Brazilian health councils: including the excluded? / Vera Schattan P. Coelho -- Spaces for participation in health systems in rural Bangladesh: the experience of stakeholder community groups / Simeen Mahmud -- Gendered subjects, the state and participatory spaces: the politics of domesticating participation in rural India / Ranjita Mohanty -- Social change and community participation: the case of health facilities boards in the Western Cape of South Africa / John J. Williams -- Civil organizations and political representation in Brazil's participatory institutions / Graziela Castello, Adrián Gurza Lavalle and Peter P. Houtzager -- Inclusion and representation in democratic deliberations: lessons from Canada's Romanow Commission / Bettina von Lieres and David Kahane -- The politics of institutionalised participation -- Democratizing the governance of health services : the case of Cabo de Santo Agostinho, Brazil / Andrea Cornwall -- Subverting the spaces of invitation? Local politics and participatory budgeting in post-crisis Buenos Aires / Dennis Rodgers -- Participation, mutation and political transition: new democratic spaces in peri-urban Angola / Sandra Roque and Alex Shankland -- Citizen participation in South Africa: land struggles and HIV/AIDS activism / Bettina von Lieres -- Whose spaces? Contestations and negotiations in health and community regeneration forums in UK / Marian Barne -- About the contributors -- Index.