As a contribution to those interested in the subject, here are the links of some manuals:

1) Handbuch zur partizipation : http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/soziale_stadt/partizipation/download/Handbuch_Partizipation.pdf

2) Grundkonzeption für den Bundesverkehrswegeplan 2015: https://www.bmvi.de/SharedDocs/DE/Anlage/VerkehrUndMobilitaet/bvwp-2015-grundkonzeption-langfassung.pdf?__blob=publicationFile

3) Leitlinien für mitgestaltende Bürgerbeteiligung in der Stadt Heidelberg: http://www.heidelberg.de/site/Heidelberg_ROOT/get/documents/heidelberg/PB5Documents/pdf/12_pdf_Buergerbeteiligung_LeitlinienEnd.pdf

Look at the OECD handbooks on public participation and Lukensmeyer "Public Deliberation: A Manager's Guide to Citizen Engagement". There are many examples in Health for example the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Citizen Engagement Framework at http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/41270.html. Don't be put off by the word 'research', they are very active in this field. Also Queensland Health (Australia) http://www.health.qld.gov.au/hcq/publications/consumer-engagement.pdf. Then there is NICE in the UK http://www.nice.org.uk/. Many other examples in the health field which you will find helpful to your own area of interest.

Clutton:

Very obliged for the suggestions and examples!

presentatation can be found in my publications. Criterias and tools.

Involvement as a determinant of equity

More specific infomation i could send by email? (If i find them in english)

http://www.conferences.ee/iuheli2012/presentations/DAY1/p8/PS8%25204%2520Involvement%2520as%2520a%2520determinant%2520of%2520equity.%2520P%25C3%25A4ivi%2520Rouvinen%2520Wilenius.pdf

Rouvinen-Wilenius:

I'm going to read it! Thank You.

Rouvinen-Wilenius:

All information is always welcome! If you find more, please send me. It doesn't matter if it's written in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese or Galician. Thanks for your help!

Here are criterias in english (those include the idea of participation)

And ilnvolment tools. If you use these, let me know your experience how useful are they, maybe we could write an article:)

Rouvinen-Wilenius:

At the moment, I'm involved in a challenge that will keep me busy until late July. But, after that, it will be an honor to share experiences. Until then!

There is a website with annotated manual for stakehodler involvememtn and participation:

http://www.irgc.org/risk-governance/stakeholder-engagement-guide/.

You might also want to consult a breif manual that I had written recently:

Ortwin Renn (2014): Stakeholder Involvememt in Risk Governance. Ark Publications: London

Renn:

Thank you so much for the information. I am going to read them carefully.

If ypou have any questions or comments you can forward them to me

Thanks, Renn!

I will make this!

I recommend you consult The HarmoniCOP project. they have published some interesting and useful documents (pdf) about "the understanding of participatory river basin management planning in Europe".

Thank you very much Lema, your suggestion is really interesting.

I have some articles about environmental participation, also, I think that these may be interesting to you: http://xoanvicenteviqueira.wordpress.com/urban-sustainability/

Newig et al. have developed a scheme for evaluating the effectiveness of participation. See: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2245518

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (UK) has commissioned some very useful reports on community participation tools and evaluation http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/what-works-assessing-community-participation

Excellent inputs!

Dear Lema, Munro and Chng, thank you for your Comments.

Hi, I was involved in developing a manual for citizen involvement in decision making using mapping methods - see 

http://www.tweedforum.org/research/Borderlands_Community_Mapping_Guide_.pdf

Cinderby:

Thank you for your statement!

I'll read carefully, because I believe it is an excellent initiative.

I have recentky written a manual:

Ortwin Renn (2014): Stakeholder Involvement in Risk Governance. Ark Publications. London

We have also issued a review of manuals in:

http://stakeholder.irgc.org/resource-guide/

Renn:

Thanks for the suggested reading!

I'll read everything very carefully.

http://stakeholder.irgc.org/full-list/ 

Renn:

Thanks for the suggested reading!

I'll read everything very carefully.

I forgot to include the link to the list of books.

http://stakeholder.irgc.org/full-list/

Thanks, Andrea. If you need further asssistance please let me know

I suggest you to read some of the works written or edited by De Sousa Santos, Yves Syntomer, Giovanni Allegretti, Anja Rocke or Brigitte Geissel  (for example Evaluating Democratic Innovations, Routledge, 2012)...not really manuals, but books with a lot of case studies, useful for mining examples of participation and civic engagement.

Putini:

I agree with you that De Sousa Santos is essential. I also know Geissel. But I confess that I look for Syntomer, Allegretti and Rocke. Thanks for your suggestions!

Andrea, I suggest you look up the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, based in Ottawa.  They have a very nice "Citizen Engagement in Health Casebook" which will give you some case studies of useful methods.  They also have interesting toolkits.

Cathy:

Thank you for the tip!

Read about case studies and meet new tools is all I wanted.

Thank you!

Andrea, the Canadians are well ahead in citizen engagement, notably in the health area which is my field.   If you would like to send me your email address I can send you some links and documents that you might find helpful.   Cathy  :)

Dear Abdrèa,

interesting topic with still ongoing research thus best practise is not quite clear at all, but in procress for progress in participation concepts (§;-). You've already got a lot of hints and publications, so just some points from my experience and further possible links:

In Germany the CIVITAS-Network is an organisation of cities engaged in sustainable developemt by their own practice, also the BRUNDTLAND at internaitonal leveldoing a lot of activities in this SusDevSector, And participation in SesDEv are always like a long term process, leading to special participation formats and desigs like citizen panels, continunous working-groups , social arena for dialogues and discourses about criticial topics and also combining small and big scaled formats like citizon conferens with group delphi, stakeholder statements. The process focus on information for all, participation for all who want to come in the process,  reflection of results in small formats for the pblic and discussing sugegstions out of the public in the small, but intense groups.

DLR Stuttgart

Dear Pfenning:

Thanks for the tips!

I'll look for more information about the CIVITAS Network. I'm sure it will be very helpful to me.

Thanks RG friends, for your insightful, informative, posts.

Among the challenges that these countries have been facing is the issue of incorporating citizens into the decisionmaking process. Very often citizens do not understand their rights and responsibilities and therefore are not able to express their opinions and concerns. Even though the process is slow and tiresome, the countries of this region are making great efforts to strengthen their democratic systems

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTBELARUS/Resources/eng.pdf