Public participation as a tool for building a reintegration management system of territorial socio-economic systems

<jats:p>The article is devoted to the study of public participation as a key instrument for building a system of reintegration management of territorial socio-economic systems in the conditions of war and post-war recovery. In the modern scientific discourse, the reintegration of territories is considered a complex, multi-vector process of restoring disrupted social, economic, institutional, cultural, and value-based connections, which goes far beyond the technical restoration of infrastructure. Particular attention is paid to the phenomenon of “alienation”, the temporal dynamics of restoring different types of connections, and the role of public participation in overcoming institutional distrust and restoring social capital. Based on the analysis of recent studies by domestic and foreign scholars, the insufficient systematization of theoretical and practical aspects of integrating public participation into reintegration management is substantiated. The empirical basis of the work is the analytical report on the practices of involving residents in the formation and implementation of local policy. The dominance of online participation formats (about 85.8%), significant differentiation of practices depending on the type of communities (frontline, de-occupied, rear, and “communities in exile”), and the predominance of consultative forms over co-management ones were established. The study proves that public participation is transforming from a peripheral tool into a system-forming element of reintegration management. The structural-functional spiral of reintegration is identified, which includes the restitution of the macrosystem’s integrity, institutional-communicative reintegration, and community inclusion. Recommendations are proposed for transitioning from fragmented engagement to the systemic integration of public participation at all stages of territorial recovery management. Keywords: public participation, reintegration management, territorial socio-economic systems, territorial recovery, e-democracy, social capital, institutional trust, de-occupied communities, communities in exile, post-war recovery.</jats:p>