The politics of third actors: strategies used by public participation professionals in their interactions with public forum sponsors

Public participation professionals (PPPs) are individuals hired to design, implement, and facilitate participatory forums. Since PPPs are seen as third actors who ensure that dialogue between sponsors and citizens in these forums is fair and open, perceived impartiality is important to their profession. While studies on the impartiality of PPPs have mostly focused on their interactions with citizens in these kinds of forums, less attention has been paid to the role of PPPs as third actors interacting with sponsors. This article seeks to describe some strategies PPPs use with sponsors to ensure fair and open dialogue in participatory forums. Based on 35 interviews with PPPs in Quebec, six strategies employed by PPPs to maintain impartiality are described in detail. An organisational field approach was used to identify these and other strategies and capture the nature of the interdependence and mutual recognition among PPPs.