One option that could work in this context

Oxford

Mike :)

They love this term in the Public Administrations...

I would have picked "inclusion" but it is a general term that does not give one a definite concept that relates to governance. Social inclusion - as opposed to social exclusion - is what I would look to propose as the translation of "participacion."

A considerable amount of literature on social exclusion and social inclusion exist. The concepts are defined and described below:

Social inclusion. . . is affirmative action to change the circumstances and habits that lead to (or have led to) social exclusion.

Social Inclusion is a strategy to combat social exclusion, but it is not making reparations or amends for past wrongs as in Affirmative Action. It is the coordinated response to the very complex system of problems that are known as social exclusion. The notion of social inclusion can vary according to the type of strategies organizations adopted.

Social exclusion is a concept that is used in many parts of the world outside of the United States to characterize contemporary forms of social disadvantage. Dr. Lynn Todman, director of the Institute on Social Exclusion at the Adler School of Professional Psychology, suggests that social exclusion refers to processes in which individuals and entire communities of people are systematically blocked from rights, opportunities, and resources (e.g., housing, employment, healthcare, civic engagement, democratic participation, and due process) that are normally available to members of American society and which are key to social integration.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_exclusion
----
A definition of social inclusion

A socially inclusive society is defined as one where all people feel valued, their differences are respected, and their basic needs are met so they can live in dignity. Social exclusion is the process of being shut out from the social, economic, political and cultural systems which contribute to the integration of a person into the community (Cappo 2002).
Quoted in VicHealth Research Summary 2 - Social inclusion as a determinant of mental health & wellbeing (January 2005)

Social inclusion, community inclusion, social connectedness, normalisation, social integration, social citizenship - all these are terms that relate to the importance of the links between the individual members of our society and the role of each person as a member of this group.
http://www.health.vic.gov.au/agedcare/maintaining/countusin/...

Social exclusion refers to lack of participation in society and emphasizes the multi-dimensional, multi-layered, and dynamic nature of the problem. Definitions of the concept emanate from diverse ideological perspectives, but most share the following features:

(1) Lack of participation. Protagonists differ over which aspects of society are important and where responsibility for non-participation resides. Most agree that exclusion is a matter of degree, since individuals may be participating to a greater or lesser extent, and that it is relative to the society in question.
(2) Multi-dimensional. Social exclusion embraces income-poverty but is broader: other kinds of disadvantage which may or may not be connected to low income, such as unemployment and poor self-esteem, fall within its compass.
(3) Dynamic. The advent of dynamic analysis and a demand from policy makers to investigate cause as well as effect has generated an interest in the processes which lead to exclusion and routes back into mainstream society.
(4) Multi-layered. Although it is individuals who suffer exclusion, the causes are recognized as operating at many levels: individual, household, community, and institutional.
http://www.answers.com/topic/social-exclusion
----
The paper presents the results of a research study carried out within the framework of the Integrated Project Included: Strategies for social inclusion and cohesion in Europe based on education from the European Commission's 6th Framework Programme. Included is the research study on school education with the highest scientific standard and most resources in Europe. Its valuation as a project of excellence is fundamentally based on the critical communicative methodology it implements, described in the paper through one of the projects that integrate Includ-ed.http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/fias/cye/2009/00000021...
----
UGIS seeks to find out the effects of urban development programmes on social inclusion in deprived urban areas, on sustainability, and on urban governance.
Proposition
During the last decade all over Europe, urban development programmes (UDPs) have been established with a view to combat urban problems and/or to stimulate urban dynamics. These programmes have been set up in a new policy-making context, that of urban governance, the development of which they have often stimulated. Three problems will be addressed in this project:

* What are the effects of urban development programmes on social inclusion and urban sustainability?
* How did certain forms of urban governance shape these programmes, their definition, their implementation and their successes and failures?
* How has the presence of these programmes changed urban governance or even stimulated forms of urban governance?

Description
To answer these problems, the project undertakes multilevel research in 32 neighbourhoods in 9 countries. The cases are selected on two criteria. Firstly, neighbourhoods must be part of an urban development programme. They are, however, selected in such a way that a sufficient range of differentiation is obtained on a number of crucial variables. Second, to minimise new and expensive research, data should be available for at least two time periods.
The research integrates multiple levels and will proceed from a comparative perspective, but will focus on the European dimension.
The effects of urban programmes on social inclusion in deprived urban areas, on sustainability in the selected cities, and on urban governance are assessed through the analysis of a multilevel database and through cross-evaluation by the international project team.
http://www.eukn.org/urbanmatrix/themes/Urban_Policy/Urban_en...