Hi Stephanie, 

It is true that there are many interpretations and versions of history. I will share mine. I have been paying attention only on particular fields and industries and might be somewhat biased.

I will talk about citizen participation. Tentatively, the movement emerged in the late 1950's and drew a lot of attention till the late 1970's. One strand/branch emerged in management and developed predominantly in Scandinavia, the U.S.A., and the U.K. The other strand originated in urbanism and architecture (expandable to community development). The management strand have been based on the notions that participation in decision making will make workers more motivated and productive. The opposition was rambling that this is a new subtle way to exploit workers. The urbanism/architectural strand emerged on the bases of ideas about empowerment and providing equal opportunities for all social strata and groups. The opposition again had found out that participation had made people a bit more satisfied rather than making real gains. 

These participatory movements were most pronounced in Scandinavia, the U.S.A., and UK, in my humble opinion. However, there was certain interest and practices in all Western countries. In the U.S.A. the Design Methods Group that later founded EDRA (Environmental Design Research Association) had contributed a lot to this movement. Currently EDRA has a Participation Network. As my colleagues pointed, Henry Sanoff is the most consistent contributor to participatory design, starting in the 1950's and continuing up to now.

Behind the Iron Curtain, the Polish were working on theoretical issues, without much opportunities to practice beyond the official totalitarian structures.

In the late 1990's was a second wave coming with the participatory action research. It originated in several social professions and most of all, education. This second revival still continues. Currently participatory action research is the buzzword in colleges of education. Of course, the topic has enjoyed reasonable attention in the in-between years.

A careful historical analysis might find systems relationships regarding particular social processes and the interest in citizen participation. I have a general vision about that, although I haven't formalized it in precise terms. There is a zeitgeist, there are particular social processes and ideas that are associated with emergence and reemergence of the participatory movement. There are also relationships to the nature of particular professions. In urban planning and community development this is one of the major approaches.

Best wishes,

Lubomir