SOCIAL PARTICIPATION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF LOCAL SECURITY

In recent years, there has been growing interest in social participation as a method of involvingresidents in solving social problems, including local security issues. Despite this, there is still littleknowledge about the awareness of local communities’ of the different forms of participation and thebarriers that may limit their activity. There is also a lack of research on residents’ perceptions ofparticipation and its potential in diagnosing and designing local security. The aim of the conductedresearch was to understand how residents perceive social participation and how they assess its impacton local security. In this context, research questions were formulated regarding the definition ofsocial participation, its forms and role in shaping local security, as well as barriers to communityparticipation in this process. The obtained research results may contribute to the development ofmore effective mechanisms to support active community participation.