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The Devil's in the Theory: A Critical Assessment of Robert Chambers' Work on Participatory Development
Third World Quarterly - Journal of Emerging Areas
Abstract
The practice orientation of Robert Chambers' work on Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), which aims at enabling local people and communities to take control over their own development, has received much attention in development circles. This article attempts to shift the emphasis away from PRA's practice towards its theoretical underpinnings. The article argues that PRA's practice/empiricist orientation causes it to be insufficiently theorised and politicised. As a result, questions about inclusiveness, the role of PRA facilitators, and the personal behaviour of elites overshadow, or sometimes ignore, questions of legitimacy, justice, power and the politics of gender and difference. The article draws on arguments and debates involving Habermasian 'deliberative democracy' and post-structuralist notions of power.
... 120 Ambitious but naive attempts to achieve inclusion and transdisciplinarity have been, while valuable in intent, relatively ineffective in delivering true inclusion and recognition of all perspectives, possibly reinforcing power imbalances rather than mitigating them. 121,122 This was the case, for example, for the UN Food System Summit (see Box 1). 71,123 ...
... First, to respond to the lack of an integrated framework that examines justice across multiple food systems components, we interconnect the justice dimensions identified in the literature (distributive, procedural, recognitional, and universal) with a framework built upon a systematic review of over 120 publications that identified the core food systems elements to be tackled for transformation ( Figure 1A). 124 The Conti et al. 121 framework clearly spells out the elements to be redesigned so that transformation can be achieved. The integration of these two frameworks is presented in Figure 1B, with food systems elements on the left and justice dimensions on the top. ...
... They also serve to expose contending interests, values, and visions, often associated with unequal power dynamics that thwart system change. 6,130 The application of the Conti et al. 121 framework to food systems justice dimensions ( Figure 1A) and the interrogative approach, together, allow us to build the JUSTRA ( Figure 1B), which combines food systems justice and food system transformation considerations in a single matrix to be applied for a variety of purposes. ...
A just food system transformation is imperative to meet this century’s goals of environmental sustainability,
economic fairness, and equitable social well-being. While considerations of justice are beginning to inform
food system transformation debates, there remains a lack of conceptual and practical integration of these
two historically separate disciplinary perspectives. This perspective therefore proposes the just transformation matrix (JUSTRA), which integrates justice and transformation concerns using an interrogative approach.
Interrogatives probe the historical, present, and future intersections of justice with specific food system elements. If used conscientiously, the JUSTRA can assist a wide spectrum of food system actors in strategizing, implementing, and monitoring just food system transformations. It can also help stakeholders to more
thoughtfully engage with power imbalances both among users and in the broader food system more
broadly—if used ‘‘in bona fides.’’ Thus, while further testing is necessary to fully realize the potential of the
JUSTRA, the matrix can become a powerful tool in multi-stakeholder dialogues to navigate unpredictable,
diverse, and power-laden complexities of just food system transformations.
... On the other hand, what Chambers' (1994) failed to anticipate was Kapoor's (2002) concerns that "local controls" may not be without their own duplicitous agendas. Arguably, village politics often mimic the gross inequalities at the global level. ...
... In illustrating the difficulty of accounting for the divergent interests of stakeholders, two brief case studies are offered to provide practical insight into localized educational initiatives in East and West Africa. While both cases illustrate the need for more indepth planning and monitoring, the first case defends the conclusions of Chambers (1994) while the latter case speaks to the comments of Kapoor (2002). What these seemingly disparate case studies underscore is that nonformal initiatives have very diverse configurations where the best of intentions can easily become sullied if subtle, yet consequential, incompatibilities are not anticipated. ...
... In contrast, Kapoor (2002) stated participatory development "... valorizes local, as opposed to Western knowledge and aims to empower people to determine much of the agenda" (p.103). Kapoor further noted that Chambers (1994) was concerned with outsiders (often Westerners), taking on the role of experts. ...
... He underlined a lack of concern in the legitimacy of inclusiveness. Kapoor's paper specifically argued through the lens of Hebermas' theory that sees deliberation needs to be governed by formal conditions (Kapoor, 2002), which contrasts with PRA that occasionally requires informal conditions. Hebermas calls this idea an ideal speech situation that designates rational dialogue among free and equal participants that prioritise coercive-free, where people engage in argument and counter-argument freely without feeling dominated by others. ...
... Meanwhile, this is in contrast to participatory methods, at least represented by Chambers PRA, in which there are no systematic rules governing participation and group interaction (Kapoor, 2002). In this sense, Kapoor implicitly questioned the legitimacy of inclusiveness in the participatory approach, mainly for disadvantaged people. ...
... According to this viewpoint, the formality of legitimating procedures lends a certain informality to deliberative democracy, allowing it to become a part of people's daily lives, whereas the informality and absence of legitimation procedures. In PRA, there is a risk that local community life will become overly formal, burdening and disrupting people's daily lives (Kapoor, 2002). ...
The practice of participation, which aims to empower rural communities to take command of their development, has received attention in rural development. Two main participatory methods are closely related and commonly used: Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) and Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA). While the RRA was designed and spread around the 1980s, PRA was a further evolution of the RRA and flourished rapidly in the 1990s. Both are used initially to learn about rural life and set of circumstances on the grassroots (Chambers, 1994). Therefore, to understand how and why participation becomes the notion in development practices, it is important to trace back the origins of the participatory approach coming from various disciplines. This will give a clearer picture of how participation is essential to development. And then, diving into the critiques and negative implications, mainly for RRA and PRA as current representatives of participation methods, from which will correspondingly illustrate the reason why participatory approaches become central to the development practices.
... Rather than 'investigating from the outside,' researchers attempt to work more closely with participants in their lived environments. This is framed as a more inclusive way to conduct research, and one with more direct lines to support 'practice' (Talhouk et al., 2019) -though not without a critique (Kapoor, 2002). ...
... However, these practices can remain fraught with challenges (Duarte et al., 2018). Challenges include: uneven decision-making power; inter-community tensions related to trust in research; interpersonal challenges for community members interviewing their peers about sensitive information; and, financial pressures on community researchers that limit the degrees of their 'empowerment' to disagree or defy real and perceived authority within research teams (Duarte et al., 2018;Kapoor, 2002;Talhouk et al., 2019). ...
... Participatory development (PD) has gained prominence in the world of development since the 1990s (Chambers 1994;Kapoor 2002). Due to its assumptions of traditional communities as isolated, homogeneous, and relatively free of power relations (Mansuri and Rao 2004;Williams 2004), and a weak state unable to address development needs around health care, transportation, food, and education (Bratton 1989;Puplampu and Tettey 2000), PD puts development agencies (usually international development institutions and domestic non-governmental organizations (NGOs)) at the center of the community development process (Kapoor 2002;Korten 1987). ...
... Participatory development (PD) has gained prominence in the world of development since the 1990s (Chambers 1994;Kapoor 2002). Due to its assumptions of traditional communities as isolated, homogeneous, and relatively free of power relations (Mansuri and Rao 2004;Williams 2004), and a weak state unable to address development needs around health care, transportation, food, and education (Bratton 1989;Puplampu and Tettey 2000), PD puts development agencies (usually international development institutions and domestic non-governmental organizations (NGOs)) at the center of the community development process (Kapoor 2002;Korten 1987). Additionally, PD has increasingly emphasized participatory governance -primarily in democratic states -as an important piece of it (Fung and Wright 2001;Gaventa 2004). ...
Participatory development (PD) has historically treated communities as isolated, homogeneous, relatively free of power relations, and governed by weak states. More recently PD has emphasized participatory governance in democratic state contexts. But how might PD work in a strong state? Our action research of four years in a community stricken by the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake in China finds that the disaster temporarily weakened the state, allowing room for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to operate and engage residents in reconstruction. But, as basic services returned, strong state control was restored, marginalizing development agencies. Still, the temporary power of NGOs and community organizations offers lessons for expanding participatory local governance. We argue that, if PD agencies act strategically at such moments, they can at least temporarily build community power and potentially open up opportunities for further community participation. We offer suggestions for using PD in a strong state context.
... The inclusiveness is to make sure the participation of all members ofthe local community in PRA meetings and workshops. Particular attention is paid to include the poor and marginalized people: "the poor, weak, vulnerable and exploited should come first' (Chambers, 1999).Ideally, it is very essential to include all unequal in PRA sessions to ensure the empowerment and the representation of different groups (Shava, 2017).To achieve the objectives of PRA various methods and unique techniques are deployed; hence to ensure community participation, regardless of literacy levels, the visual inputs or a combination of oral, written, and visual communication are emphasized (Kapoor, 2002;Solano Lara et al., 2018). ...
The accuracy of results in social research is based on the sharpness of data collection tools.For long the researchers have been using traditional tools such as questionnaire survey, case study method, projective methods,etc.,but inthe recent past, Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools have emerged as a new research method. NGOs and some Government Institutions have now adopted PRA and Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) tools aselements of their institutional culture and are increasingly used in social research. In agricultural extension, the researchers used PRA for the identification of research priorities, a field problem, training needs assessment, infrastructure facility availability,etc. This article is a criticismofPRAin the light of personal research experience conducted in 2013 on Maternal and Newborn Child Health (MNCH)project wherein PRA tools including Transect Walk, Social Mapping, Focused Group Discussions(FGDs), Networking Diagram, and Cause and Effect Diagram were used. The first three activities were found to be continuous repetition. The researchers' negative role was observed as they kept on directing the respondents; hence the purpose of the PRA method was notbeing fulfilled.In the group activity,people hesitate to provide sensitive data; hence originality of data is challenged. Marginalized people were the target groups, but the elite of the area had more representation. There were gaps between the environment of the training session for the application of PRA tools and field activity for the collection of data through PRA tools. The procedures and protocol of PRA could not be followed.During FGD twelve people were invited, but in reality, more than fifty persons were present, which affected the efficiency of researchers and quality of data. Hencethe prime objectof PRA was not achieved.
... 120 Ambitious but naive attempts to achieve inclusion and transdisciplinarity have been, while valuable in intent, relatively ineffective in delivering true inclusion and recognition of all perspectives, possibly reinforcing power imbalances rather than mitigating them. 121,122 This was the case, for example, for the UN Food System Summit (see Box 1). 71,123 ...
... For example, through open dialogue and consultation, the community can prioritize projects like clean water infrastructure when such needs are identified, enhancing the program's effectiveness and sustainability. This approach aligns with the principles of participatory development, emphasizing the importance of involving communities directly in decision-making to ensure program success (Kapoor, 2002). ...
Innovation of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of Makin Mesra reduces West Aceh District's poverty. CSR of Makin Mesra is a collaborative effort between the local government and private companies to address the region's poverty challenges. The research method used a qualitative approach with case studies to understand the impact and challenges of the program in depth. Data were collected through interviews with key parties, including government officials, company representatives, and community members. The research findings reveal that CSR Makin Mesra has resulted in significant improvements in the welfare of the target community, including a decrease in poverty and unemployment rates. The program has facilitated increased economic activity and essential support for marginalized groups. However, challenges such as limited human resources, delays in fund distribution, and differences in beneficiary data hinder the program's implementation, efficiency, and impact in reducing poverty. This study concludes that CSR Makin Mesra is an essential innovation in utilizing corporate social responsibility for poverty alleviation. This innovation shows positive results in improving community welfare and economic stability. Despite the challenges, the program highlights the potential of collaborative CSR efforts in addressing complex social issues effectively. The author's recommendations to improve the effectiveness of CSR Makin Mesra include strengthening the capacity of the human resources involved through training and skills development of the implementation team and simplifying the fund distribution process through reforming the fund submission and distribution procedures.
... Many writers have been critical of participation in development (e.g., Cooke & Kothari, 2001;Kapoor, 2004Kapoor, , 2005. It is suggested that, far from being inclusive and bottom-up, 'normative participation' can actually reconfigure power and value systems in ways that can be fundamentally exclusionary. ...
... Exclusion rights can redistribute bargaining power to local elites who are able to redefine operational rules-in-use, managing natural resources for individual political and economic advantage and promoting an authoritarian governance regime (Eriksen, 2007;Nygaard, 2008;Thompson & Homewood, 2002). As observed in fire-related payment for ecosystem services and carbon credit schemes , this can drive privatization and the accumulation of benefits amongst a privileged minority (Kapoor, 2002). Where historically rooted forms of community governance and social rules are present, legal frameworks to transfer management rights to local communities and regulate elite behavior could facilitate self-organization in democratic decision-making over fire use (Arnall et al., 2013;Cox et al., 2010;Marshall et al., 2017). ...
The introduction of fire suppression policies and expansion of exclusionary protected areas in East and Southern African savannas have engendered a wildfire paradox. Outside protected areas, livestock have replaced fire as the dominant fuel consumer. Inside their boundaries, wildfire intensity has increased due to accumulating flammable biomass. Community‐Based Fire Management (CBFiM) is recognized as an alternative fire management strategy to address the wildfire paradox and promote equitable fire governance across conservation landscapes. Yet, there has been little investigation into the implementation and effectiveness of CBFiM across East and Southern Africa's savanna‐protected areas. Here we employ a social‐ecological systems framework to develop a systematic map of the published literature on the framing and features of CBFiM in this context. We characterize the challenges and opportunities for their design and implementation, focusing on the relationship between governance systems and community participation in fire management. We find that CBFiM projects are commonly governed by the state and international non‐governmental organisations who retain decision‐making power and determine access to savanna resources and fire use. Existing CBFiM projects are limited to communal rangelands and are developed within existing Community‐Based Natural Resource Management programs prioritizing fire prevention and suppression. Planned CBFiM projects propose an exclusive early‐dry season patch mosaic burning regime to incorporate indigenous fire knowledge into modern management frameworks, but evidence of indigenous and local peoples' involvement is scarce. To provide equitable fire management, CBFiM projects need to address inequalities embedded in protected area governance and centralized suppression policies, and account for changing state‐society and intra‐society relations across the region.
... Since the development of the software in the organization inevitably lead to successive definable work phases, the work process in the guideline development became cyclical as well. The team members understood the co-creative and cyclical course of activities as very supportive and guideline fragments were jointly observed and evaluated by researcher and participant leading to follow-up actions (Kapoor, 2002;Riel & Polin, 2004). Here, the focus lies on social action and their transformation for the better by dissolving barriers of communication. ...
Digital servitization describes the change of business models towards smart service offerings enabled by digitization. One challenge of digital servitization for manufacturers is to gain a better understanding how smart services generate value-in-use. To examine individual value-in-use concepts regarding smart services, we conducted and analyzed 22 in-depth interviews with the repertory grid technique. Our findings show that the respondents have a fairly uniform understanding of what constitutes an ideal service. Their perception of the service of tomorrow, smart service, and remote service offerings is closer to a future ideal than the service of today. Further we were able to group individual value perceptions into four groups and to discuss differences of an external and internal view on smart service. Interestingly sustainability was not mentioned as a value dimension in our study, which should be investigated further.KeywordsSmart serviceRepertory gridValue-in-use
... Authors such as Ilan Kapoor (2002) have extended the dialogue on participatory development by criticizing the lack of theoretical grounding for participatory methods that enable many of the pitfalls already discussed in the literature. As diverse answers to the questions above are brought to the fore, it is critical that we continue to look more closely at the theories and methods related to participatory development and question its more common assumptions. ...
... This device is in line with the work on the sociological Habermas-Mouffe debate (Kapoor, 2002). The theory of deliberative democracy developed by Habermas is based on a rational consensus, whereas the theory of agonistic democracy developed by Mouffe allows for the expression of alternative positions and voices (Beaumont & Nicholls, 2008). ...
This paper details the operating experience about a case study carried out as a citizen science approach to monitor magnetic particulate matter (PM) in a street canyon in Montpellier, France. A total of 60 passive filters and 12 Hedera Helix pot plants were deployed in 29 households for a period of 3 months, from December 2020 to March 2021. This street canyon was chosen by the academic team because dwellers were already mobilized against the street traffic and its adverse environmental effect on air quality, and because they were in conflict on this issue with policy makers. Despite the project aimed at including all the stakeholders through co‐construction, dwellers, elected officials, and staff from technical department of the city were not fully embedded. The announcement of the closure of the street to through traffic during the metrological campaign and the absence of agreement curbed their involvement and motivation. However, the feedbacks from the citizen partners promote the fact that this study supported their claims and brought them a deeper understanding on the micro‐scale air quality monitoring. Indeed, it is increasingly difficult for citizens, who seemed specifically interested in what is happening right outside their front door, to understand this measure with the emergence of ever more low‐cost sensors. For that reason, we examined the citizen's degree of confidence in magnetic monitoring of air quality and how can this technique be useful in their claims. The results show that magnetism can be a measurement technique favorable to citizen participation because it provides a large amount of data at the micro‐scale of the street, while the data from the certified associations for monitoring air quality requires a spatial interpolation to map variations on a neighborhood scale. In this study, we proposed a magnetic air quality index to standardize and democratize the magnetic monitoring of air quality to facilitate the dialogue with all stakeholders.
... 822 Where social norms, collective identities, and locally legitimate institutions are present, the 823 establishment of a legal framework to transfer management rights to local communities could 824 facilitate self-organisation in democratic decision-making over local affairs (Cox et al., 2010; Marshall 825 et al., 2017). On the other hand, exclusion rights can promote authoritarianism whereby local elites 826 gain bargaining power and redefine operational rules-in-use at the local level(Kapoor, 2002). Able to 827 exploit their improved access to natural resources for individual political and economic advantage, 828 exclusion rights can drive privatization and accumulation of benefits amongst a privileged minority829 of IPLCs(Thompson and Homewood, 2002; Eriksen, 2007;. ...
The introduction of fire suppression policies and expansion of exclusionary protected areas (PAs) in East and Southern African (ESA) savannas have engendered a wildfire paradox. Outside PAs, livestock have replaced fire as the dominant fuel consumer. While inside PAs, wildfire intensity has increased due to accumulating flammable biomass. Community-Based Fire Management (CBFiM) is recognised as an alternative bottom-up management strategy to address the wildfire paradox and promote equitable fire governance across conservation landscapes. Yet, there has been little investigation into the implementation and effectiveness of CBFiM across ESA’s savanna-PAs. Here we employ a social-ecological systems framework to develop a systematic map of the published literature on the framing and features of CBFiM across ESA savanna-PAs. We characterise the challenges and opportunities for their design and implementation, focusing on the relationship between governance systems and community participation in fire management. We find that CBFiM projects are commonly governed by the State and international NGOs retaining decision-making power and determining access to savanna resources and fire use. Existing CBFiM projects are limited to communal rangelands and are developed within existing Community-Based Natural Resource Management programmes prioritising fire prevention and suppression. Planned CBFiM projects propose an exclusive early-dry season patch mosaic burning regime to incorporate indigenous fire knowledge into modern scientific management frameworks, but evidence of indigenous and local peoples’ involvement is scarce. To provide equitable fire management, CBFiM projects need to address inequalities embedded in PA governance, persisting anti-fire wisdoms, centralised suppression policies, and account for changing state-society relations in the region.
... No obstante, pronto se introdujeron modelos alternativos que contemplaban la participación de las comunidades en las que se pretendía imprimir algún cambio y se valoraban sus conocimientos. Estos modelos ofrecían a esas comunidades un poder de negociación en el diseño y la implementación de las novedades (Kapoor 2002), reconociendo que el cono-cimiento emerge solo "a través de la invención y la reinvención, a través de la inquieta, impaciente y esperanzada investigación que los seres humanos persiguen en el mundo, con el mundo y entre sí" 2 (Freire 1970, 66). ...
Gender-inclusive language, both binary and non-binary, advocates for wider visibility of non-dominant genders. However, in the Spanish context, this language, especially the binary variant, has been received with much opposition led by the institution establishing linguistic norms. This paper addresses the possibility of using gender-inclusive language as a political practice in translation and explores how entertainment genres, particularly comics, and information on the social goals of heterodox linguistic practices may be conducive to relaxing the adherence to dominant doxas. By priming responses based on two gender-inclusive (one binary and one non-binary) translations of the comic Morgane by Kansara and Fert, differences between four focus groups were analyzed. Two of them received a briefing session detailing the social agenda of gender-inclusive language, and two were offered no such sessions before reading and discussing the translations. Results showed how the briefing sessions relaxed adherence to the dominant doxa even though the social purpose of gender-inclusive language was widely questioned. Further, results evinced that binary translation was more strongly opposed than the non-binary variant. It is argued that translation can be used as a tool for political and social change and become instrumental in advocating for equal opportunities for all genders.
... The purpose of these sessions was to complement and cross-check information from the SSI. One session was performed with supervisors and one with workers to avoid the potential power imbalance which can prevent free expressions of opinions out of fear of repercussions (Kapoor 2002;Fischer et al. 2020b). Both groups were convened by the slaughterhouse manager. ...
... Therefore, community members are brought together and mediated by participatory methodologies such as Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) to "express, enhance, share and analyze their knowledge of life and conditions, to plan and to act" (Chambers, 1994(Chambers, , 1253. Initially, the participatory processes are facilitated by professional outsiders, but the role of the facilitator must be taken over by community members at a more advanced stage of empowerment (Kapoor, 2002). This infers that poor themselves know better about their reality than any other person whether a scholar or development professional. ...
... Indeed, it remains a very significant evolution in development thinking. But by the 1990s, participation had become so well incorporated that it was criticised for being formulaic, depoliticised, and even tyrannical (Bastian and Bastian 1992, Mosse 1994, Cleaver 1999, Kothari 2001, Kapoor 2002, Chhotray 2004. ...
This paper engages with a central problem in development studies: why is development so depoliticised, and how can this be remedied? It does so by providing a theoretical/conceptual framework of the way that the ‘political’ and the ‘technical’ are constructed as a cognitive gap in the inner frame of the development planner. Drawing on Scott, Schmitt, Weber, Horkheimer & Adorno, and the critical development literature, it argues that politics presents itself to the planner as a sphere of uncertainty that can disrupt project outcomes. Knowledge production about development politics, for example through political economy analysis, is thus a compulsion that arises from the need to govern this source of uncertainty. The politics rendered legible and decoded in this way is also ipso facto no longer part of the political unknown, but now belongs to the realm of the technical. The implications of this framework are that the anti-politics machine will perpetually regenerate itself. The work of mitigating technocratic excess is productive, but it is a Sisyphian labour that will not have a clean or satisfying end-date.
... Indeed, it remains a very significant evolution in development thinking. But by the 1990s, participation had become so well incorporated that it was criticised for being formulaic, depoliticised, and even tyrannical (Bastian and Bastian 1992, Mosse 1994, Cleaver 1999, Kothari 2001, Kapoor 2002, Chhotray 2004. ...
This paper provides a theoretical-conceptual investigation of the new politics of development agenda and evaluates the possibility of making development more political. Drawing on Scott, Schmitt, Weber, Horkheimer & Adorno, and the critical development literature, the paper argues that depoliticization must be seen in terms of the way that the ‘political’ and the ‘technical’ are constructed as a cognitive gap in the inner frame of the development planner. That which is known to the planner is ipso facto ‘technical’, whereas that which is not is ‘politics’. Politics thus presents itself to the planner as a sphere of uncertainty that can disrupt development projects. Knowledge production about politics is a method to render it legible and thus, to govern this source of uncertainty by either technocratising it into implementable interventions, or by containing it as a calculable risk. The implications of this framework are that the work of addressing the anti-politics machine is not about politicising development, but of technocratising politics. Furthermore, this task is not a one-shot solution, and does not have any enddate. Rather, it is an iterative process in which development practitioners, and development knowledge producers work together to regulate and moderate technocratic excess.
... There is a tendency to ignore gender and power relations. Kapoor (2002) mentions how women's ideas and experiences were not effectively considered for the reason that in meetings women were presented as a group and men presented their ideas individually. This poses challenges of making masculine view uncontested views whilst women's views are being side-stepped. ...
... Since its introduction by Chambers (1994a,b,c), action research, and participatory research approaches more broadly, took on different forms and worked with different methods and approaches to enhance people's awareness and confidence. Although the pros and cons have been widely discussed in the literature (e.g., Leeuwis, 2000;Cooke and Kothari, 2001;Kapoor, 2002), this philosophy of learning from, with and by rural people by "handing over the stick" (Chambers, 1994b) has always been central in our WLRA program. ...
Despite their key role in agriculture, in many African regions, women do not have equal access to or control and ownership over land and natural resources as men. As a consequence, international organizations, national governments and non-governmental organizations have joined forces to develop progressive policies and legal frameworks to secure equal land rights for women and men at individual and collective levels in customary tenure systems. However, women and men at the local level may not be aware of women's rights to land, and social and cultural relations may prevent women from claiming their rights. In this context, there are many initiatives and programs that aim to empower women in securing their rights. But still very little is known about the existing strategies and practices women employ to secure their equal rights and control over land and other natural resources. In particular, the lived experiences of women themselves are somewhat overlooked in current debates about women's land rights. Therefore, the foundation of this paper lies in research and action at the local level. It builds on empirical material collected with community members, through a women's land rights action research program in Kenya, Senegal, Malawi, and Mozambique. This paper takes the local level as its starting point of analysis to explore how the activities of women (as well as men and other community members) and grassroots organizations can contribute to increased knowledge and concrete actions to secure women's land rights in customary tenure systems in sub-Saharan Africa. It shows three important categories of activities in the vernacularization process of women's land rights: (1) translating women's land rights from and to local contexts, (2) realizing women's land rights on the ground, and (3) keeping track of progress of securing women's land rights. With concrete activities in these three domains, we show that, in collaboration with grassroots organizations (ranging from grassroots movements to civil society organizations and their international partner organizations), rural women have managed to strengthen their case, to advocate for their own priorities and preferences during land-use planning, and demand accountability in resource sharing. In addition, we show the mediating role of grassroots organizations in the action arena of women's secure rights to land and other natural resources.
... Hacker 2013;Hall et al. 2016;Strand et al. 2003). Although collaboration is a key aspect of CBR, scholars and practitioners should not forget the participatory ideal, whereby communities are able to mobilise and carry out their own agenda without outsiders being the initiators or facilitators (Kapoor 2002;Negri et al. 1998). ...
This article aims to rethink the positionality of community in community-based research collaboration and advocate the need for community members to facilitate CBR processes to counter power imbalances in community-university engagement. I reflect on my lived experience as a community-based facilitator through a feminist post-structural lens focused on the interplay between concepts such as subjectivity, margin-centre and performativity. I argue that, despite the community-engaged scholarship egalitarian ideal, university-community engagement still echoes the old researcher-researched binary in which academics remain the hegemonic pole. In addition, as a medium of power/knowledge, the university fabricates the community and its marginality. Thus, a margin-centre relationship is established, in which community groups must claim their marginality to receive a share of the centre (the university), such as research skills and information. In these margin-centre dynamics, university and community can be understood as identities and subject positions to be taken up by individuals. In essence, these positions are expressions of regulatory power that normalises subjectivities, a condition in which individuals exist as subjects in the social space. Insights from the work of Judith Butler lead to the understanding that, in order to conceive community members as CBR facilitators, normalised and stabilised binary identities (university-community) should be unsettled. This entails individuals who are subjected as ‘the community’ to escape subjection by moving towards recognition of a subjectivity that is not prescribed or is still marginalised within the discourse. In escaping subjection, community groups may exercise power in order to establish new power relations in which CBR becomes more community-led, yet still collaborative.
... Chambers (1983) introduced participatory action research to facilitate 'practical political economies' where marginalised community members were deliberately included and hence empowered in otherwise inequitable decision-making. This has since drawn criticism because development practitioners thus become political agents themselves, exacerbating the problem of elite-capture dominating decision spaces (Kapoor, 2002). Researchers taking this role potentially also fall into this trap, promoting their normative goals and values and creating a 'top-down' influence in governance (Mikulewicz, 2018). ...
Adaptation pathways are decision-making processes which sequence actions over time to account for rapid change and future uncertainty. In developing economies pathways practice can guide climate-resilient development (CRD) but is hampered by complex political dynamics, intensified by ‘resource curses’ of abundant natural resources. We tested an adaptation pathways approach for large-scale natural resource development in Papua New Guinea’s Bismarck Sea. We engaged with five contested development proposals for deep sea mining, oil palm and tourism to integrate CRD principles into decision-making. The process involved three steps: mapping decision-making and power, participatory pathways planning, and evaluation and learning. CRD-relevant information was fed into decision-making about the proposals. ‘Political spaces’ were created through participatory planning that levelled power asymmetries, enabled common interests to emerge, democratised knowledge co-production, enhanced networks and coordination, and galvanised collective action to re-design the proposals with CRD considerations. The common political interests formed leverage points for conflict transformation and collaboration. Evaluation revealed the suspension of an oil palm development to allow a landuse plan to be formulated to account for food security, conservation and climate adaptation. The study highlighted three learnings: the importance of analysing politics and power in decision-making and identifying leverage points; the challenges for researchers wishing to create political spaces; and the necessity for capacity-building amongst local knowledge brokers to continue this role. We conclude by assessing the feasibility of mainstreaming this approach into decision-making in resource curses, dubbed by one decision-maker as ‘walking along with development’.
... A number of limitations within this research should be noted as they impact the model's results and applicability to the wider pig industry in Timor-Leste. Literature suggests that participatory processes can be biased toward community members who already wield power (34), prove exclusionary to the marginalized (35), and mask invisible problems and power imbalances (36). The negative impact of power differentials between participants on GMB outcomes is also well documented (7,37). ...
Small-scale pig farming is highly important to the economic and social status of households in Timor-Leste. The presence of an African Swine Fever (ASF) outbreak in Timor-Leste was confirmed in 2019, a major concern given that around 70% of agricultural households practice pig farming. This research used a virtual spatial group model building process to construct a concept model to better understand the main feedback loops that determine the socio-economic and livelihood impacts of the ASF outbreak. After discussing the interaction of reinforcing and balancing feedback loops in the concept model, potential leverage points for intervention are suggested that could reduce the impacts of ASF within socio-economic spheres. These include building trust between small-scale farmers and veterinary technicians, strengthening government veterinary services, and the provision of credit conditional on biosecurity investments to help restock the industry. This conceptual model serves as a starting point for further research and the future development of a quantitative system dynamics (SD) model which would allow ex-ante scenario-testing of various policy and technical mitigation strategies of ASF outbreaks in Timor-Leste and beyond. Lessons learned from the blended offline/online approach to training and workshop facilitation are also explored in the paper.
... Not all community-based interventions effectively address equity, and in some cases might contribute to inequity, particularly if community members are operationalized to reduce risk created at macro levels (Bankoff and Hilhorst, 2009;Clark-Ginsberg, 2021). Intra community differences in power and resources that shape disaster risk and its management must also be navigated to avoid exacerbating intra-community inequity (Titz et al., 2018;Kapoor, 2002;Mosurska and Ford, 2020). Ultimately what is needed is what might be labeled a "high reliability approach" (Weick et al., 1999) to community-based disaster risk management, one where acute attention is paid to preventing disaster risk in an equitable and community-driven manner. ...
Purpose
Disaster management agencies are mandated to reduce risk for the populations that they serve. Yet, inequities in how they function may result in their activities creating disaster risk, particularly for already vulnerable and marginalized populations. In this article, how disaster management agencies create disaster risk for vulnerable and marginalized groups is examined, seeking to show the ways existing policies affect communities, and provide recommendations on policy and future research.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors undertook a systematic review of the US disaster management agency, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), examining its programs through a lens of equity to understand how they shape disaster risk.
Findings
Despite a growing commitment to equity within FEMA, procedural, distributive, and contextual inequities result in interventions that perpetuate and amplify disaster risk for vulnerable and marginalized populations. Some of these inequities could be remediated by shifting toward a more bottom-up approach to disaster management, such as community-based disaster risk reduction approaches.
Practical implications
Disaster management agencies and other organizations can use the results of this study to better understand how to devise interventions in ways that limit risk creation for vulnerable populations, including through community-based approaches.
Originality/value
This study is the first to examine disaster risk creation from an organizational perspective, and the first to focus explicitly on how disaster management agencies can shape risk creation. This helps understand the linkages between disaster risk creation, equity and organizations.
... Although marginalized perspectives have the capacity to improve knowledge claims because of their unique epistemic position (Collins, 2000;Harding, 1998;Wylie & Nelson, 2007), inclusion alone is not sufficient. As feminist and development geographers have notably cautioned, relying upon romanticized or oversimplified conceptions of ''community'' risks reproducing the very power imbalances we aim to dismantle (Cooke & Kothari, 2001;Elwood, 2006aElwood, , 2006bJoseph, 2002;Kapoor, 2002;Mohan, 1999). This paper engages with the concept of positionality by reframing how community researchers see (or define) ''the community'' within which they are working, specifically by considering the diverse sites of power and privilege that exist within the community itself. ...
This paper engages with the methodological and ethical complexities of conducting research across diverse sites of power and privilege, specifically by drawing upon twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork on the ecological restoration of the Ventura River in Southern California. The design of this project incorporates people from multiple, conflicting positions, including people who are homeless and living in riverbottom encampments, people in the environmental field working to restore the riverbottom, and people in social services working to house the homeless. Throughout my fieldwork various groups attempted to assert agency over my research methods and priorities, pulling me in multiple directions. However, despite this tension, this research design also afforded me the opportunity to develop trusting relationships across difference, which facilitated the opening of a new (and potentially more just) socio-ecological imaginary for the Ventura River. This paper demonstrates how one can create change across diverse positions of power, and the role community-engaged researchers can play in this process.
... It is therefore imperative to realise that citizen empowerment will increase people's understanding to be more cooperative as ineffective citizen participation or unsuccessful effort will have on the contrary. There is however an unsophisticated understanding of how power operates and is constituted, thus of how empowerment may happen (Kapoor, 2002; or what the institution's role is, to impact on social change (Cleaver, 1999). There are more benefits to the participation of an empowered citizenry and the inclusion of communities in development and has far more reaching effects to all stakeholders. ...
... The problem with empiricist approaches, as Kapoor (2002) argues, is their inability to sufficiently theorize and politicize development solutions, including the broader political economy forces in which they are embedded in. Doing so can help to not only "illuminate the diversity of interests, postures and underlying asymmetries of power" (Grégoire et al. 2017, p. 171) in agricultural development interventions, but take into account historical processes that highly shape present and future realities of agrarian change (see Schnurr 2019, p. 20). ...
Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) has gained prominence in global agriculture and climate agendas for its perceived “triple win” contributions to food productivity, adaptation, and mitigation to climate change. This paper highlights three important challenges for CSA activities in Africa which provide insights into contested debates surrounding CSA’s ability to respond holistically to the complex realities facing resource-constrained farmers in the global South. These are (1) prevailing neoliberal market policies that emphasize private-sector driven agricultural development in the face of rising input costs and falling commodity prices; (2) an expansion in diversified livelihood strategies amongst smallholder households as a response to the highly unpredictable biophysical environment and economic climate under which they live; and (3) a growing competition for land and other productive resources. A deeper dive into political economy processes surrounding these three issues aims to bring critical attention to factors relevant to African agricultural development that highly impact farm-level practices and carry important implications for rural livelihood outcomes.
... It has been pointed out, however, that participatory action research as widely practised and theorised is riddled with philosophical, epistemological and methodological issues (Healy 2001;Frideres 1992;Kapoor 2002;Lake and Wendland 2018). There is no space here to systematically outline the extensive critiques of the method and so discussion will be confined to a core issue relevant to this study: namely, the importance of a theoretical perspective. ...
This paper describes a study that examined the challenges faced by Vietnamese ethnic minority girls regarding their sexual and reproductive health. The study employed photovoice, a research method which treats photographs and the accompanying stories provided by participants as qualitative data. Twenty-six (26) minority ethnic girls took photographs of aspects of their lives as a way of documenting the challenges, difficulties and barriers that they faced in looking after their sexual and reproductive health. Findings indicated limited access to sexual health knowledge, the exclusion of young people from mainly adult-focused sexual and reproductive health services in minority ethnic communities and the prevalence of cultural beliefs and practices that negatively affected young people’s sexual and reproductive health. The intersection of ethnicity, age and gender places Vietnamese ethnic minority girls at risk, as everyday practices informed by culture and tradition curtail their access to the limited sexual and reproductive health information and services available in their communities. Understanding these challenges is needed in developing appropriate policies, programmes and services aimed at enhancing the sexual and reproductive health of this segment of the population.
This article examines the potential benefits and challenges of incorporating ecological epistemologies and Indigenous Knowledges (IK) within psychological science. While there is growing recognition of the value of IK in addressing climate change and biodiversity loss, there is a risk of reproducing problems associated with mainstream psychology's individualist and universalist approaches. In acknowledging nonhegemonic approaches, it is crucial to avoid romanticizing or exploiting/extracting ecological epistemologies and IK. Such actions can lead to the othering and neocolonization of Indigenous communities, undermining their autonomy and perpetuating harmful power dynamics. As for psychological science and practice engagement with IK might lead to an essentialization, which, again, sustains hegemonic psychological norms. We suggest that Cultural Psychology’s dialogical focus and sensitivity to the meaning of the broader context and power relations provides important tools for fostering deeper learning and supporting decolonial transformation in psychological science’s turn to ecological and Indigenous Knowledges.
This study explores the impact of food Security strategies of National Programme for food security as an approach to ensuring adequate household consumption of beneficiaries’ food crop farmers in Kaduna State. Review of secondary materials, in-depth quantitative data constituted data sources for the study. The multiple regression method was utilized in analyzing structured questionnaire. It was discovered from the findings that the programme has been beneficial to beneficiaries’ in improving their productivity which in turn improve their household consumption patterns and as well their general well-being. Further result showed that there was delay in supply of farm inputs to the beneficiaries as well as poor repayment of loans awarded to the beneficiaries. The study recommended among others that; delay and untimely release of farm inputs to beneficiaries should be given appropriate consideration through suitable planning, costing and due organization among the various sponsors and supporters of the programmes; Frequent change in governmental policies that affects some viable governmental programmes should be looked into; new coming governments should ensure they sustain previous programmes with laudable result and their life span should be extended with wider coverage and increased number of beneficiaries.
In the context of digitalization, companies today are faced with the challenge of rethinking their process management, especially if they aim to provide smart services. Digitizing processes is not a direct route, as they are neither merely transferable nor do the processes will remain unchanged. The development and implementation of smart services as a dynamic form of digitalization also includes the consideration and analysis of existing workflows and practices. In particular, the embedded knowledge of interconnected and complex processes is underestimated, and digitization initiatives tend to move towards a closed end. In addition, the skills and embodied knowledge situated in employees is difficult to be used as core source for co-creative teamwork in front of transformation. Policy making and manual development used to support knowledge extraction and analysis of process management is a co-creative and highly effective support in this context. This paper sheds light on how the visual practice of guideline development from an industrial case can inform the creation of smart services in its primary state as proto service. This helps digital transformation project management become commercially attractive by reducing rework or project re-planning, and it enables employee integrity during the transformation. In addition, the developed approach can be used in such projects to support service training of employees in various roles from operations, development to management.KeywordsFacilitationTransformationTechnical communicationCo-creation
Gives a brief overview of the concepts, traditions, and theoretical underpinnings of action research. Provides first attempts at defining the field and shows conceptual problems and pitfalls within the action research traditions. Shows how Critical Psychology intercepts with Action Research.KeywordsAction ResearchNorthern TraditionSubjectivityAgencyCritical PsychologyGestalt Psychology
The debate on the need to adopt a participatory approach in planning and implementing development projects and programmes has increased significantly. This paper explores the role of participation in project planning and implementation in the field of development. This study critically analyses the role of a participatory approach in project planning and implementation in practice through a review of literature. There are contentious viewpoints on the significance of the participatory approach in development practise and claim that it lacks evidence of community empowerment. However, this study espouses that the optimum advantage of adopting a participatory approach in the planning and implementation of projects in practice essentially depends on how participation is conducted.
Within psychiatric research fields, there has been a marked uptick of interest in service user involvement in recent years. Nevertheless, it is often unclear how robust or impactful common forms of inclusion are, and the extent to which they
have included individuals with psychosis. Using collective auto-ethnography, this paper describes the experiences of 8 academic and non-academic members of the ‘lived experience’ and participatory research workgroup of a global psychosis
Commission and our navigation of power and power hierarchies, differences in background and training, and multiple vectors of identity, diversity, and privilege. We conclude that the realities of “involvement” are much messier, more fraught,
and less intrinsically empowering than often signaled in calls for involvement and co-production. We nevertheless stress the power of collective dialogue and support—between and among a pluralistic group—and of honesty and transparency
about challenges, barriers, and the colonial underpinnings and geopolitics of global mental health.
This article aims to provoke a discussion around conceiving community members as community-based research facilitators and leaders of their own process of change. It argues this is possible by rescuing Gramsci’s legacy of organic intellectuals that is present in community-based research literature, particularly under the participatory research rubric. However, this perspective has been overshadowed by a strong emphasis on community-based research (CBR) as a collaborative research approach rather than a people’s approach for knowledge production that leads to social transformation. Furthermore, such a view of community-based research is fruitful within an adult education and social movement learning framework. In a sense, social movements provide an environment that facilitates critical consciousness and the formation of organic intellectuals and in which communities and academics learn to better engage in partnership for community-led social change. In this context, CBR is still a collaborative approach, but one led primarily by organic intellectuals.
From its early beginning, anthropology has dealt with the unavoidably necessity of understanding the research experience as one (within many) intercultural occurrence. Far from being inconsequential, this intercultural reflexive competence is required to research agents as well. Drawing on my Ph.D ethnographic research and focusing on two Italian residential care facilities, in this chapter I analyze children’s repertoire of discursive and behavioral activities when dealing with research—its practices and tools—as locus of intercultural knowledge negotiation and co-construction of (alternative) meanings. Within ethnographic pen-to-paper fieldnotes and conversational transcripts coming from video-recorded dinnertime interaction, children’s repertoire emerges as an overall activity of “familiarization”, i.e., aimed at “making the Other familiar”, as in any intercultural encounter. Particularly, with this repertoire children display to intertwine their multiple cultural assumptions—relying on their peer cultures as well as on their institutional cultures shared with adults—, and personal concerns—, reflecting over the boundaries between public and private spheres. In so doing, they co-construct the research as an intercultural environment relying on discursive and material artifacts that need to be “talked into being”, enlarging research aims, attentions and processes.KeywordsEthnographyResidential careItalyReflexivityVideorecordings
Abstract
The study effectiveness of community development- a case study of Kaduna state Community Charter model 2015-2019 focuses on poverty reduction among individual members and community group. This is based on the concept of sustainable development with context, structures and strategies as factors affecting poverty reduction. Quantitative and qualitative research designs were used. These involved 120 participants, 5 FGDs and 5KIIs. Participants were purposively and randomly sampled. Results reveal CDGs as a potential strategy in effective community development benefiting group members for poverty reduction. Such benefits include; social, economic, physical, human or environmental. However, group composition and processes pose challenges for benefits to trickle down to some members. Structural arrangement requiring leaders and other influential people like educated members to be in the forefront of interventions has proved challenging to the approach. This happens when self-interests are at play leading to deprivations of some members to access benefits. Monitoring membership diversity focusing on group composition and operations is recommended for groups to effectively reduce poverty.
Development Cooperation initiatives face complex real-world decision-making problems. The present action research investigates the use of Simplified Pairwise Ranking in a case study related to the identification of priority agricultural development interventions in the Collectivity of Katoyi, Nord Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo. The study identifies roads building, technical training and follow-up, and improved varieties’ introduction as the first three priority interventions. The dissertation about the applied methodology against the existing criticism provides information on how simplified pairwise ranking can be a useful and scientifically sound technique for eliciting discussion among a multidisciplinary group and for prioritising alternatives in agricultural development.
This chapter analyzes whether the current policy for climate-smart agriculture meets the demands of climate justice and respects the rights of smallholders, and if not, how it should be amended. The study is based on a literature review and several interviews with climate-smart agriculture actors from diverse backgrounds: (1) consultant or practitioner, (2) farmer, (3) business or entrepreneur, (4) scientist. To examine the climate-smart agriculture concept and its implementation, the following ethical positions are mainly considered: (1) maximalist, (2) minimalist, (3) Pogge´s intermediate position, (4) Nussbaum's capability approach, (5) Kantian, (t) altruism. This study found that the current climate-smart agriculture approaches are not fairly implemented, due to the unjust sharing of benefits of income and burdens of emission reduction costs, among smallholders and big industries. According to the principles of climate justice, this sharing proportion should be equally distributed based on an individual's capacities and poverty should also be taken into consideration.
‘Do No Harm’ or ‘conflict-sensitivity’ has been mainstreamed into the planning and implementation of development-humanitarian interventions in conflict-affected situations. An umbrella term encompassing a range of frameworks and tools, all approaches involve analysing conflict dynamics in order to minimise negative impacts and maximise support for positive change. Most, however, treat conflict analysis as largely technical, requiring external expertise, and while all espouse participation, it is not inherently embedded in any. This paper explores the practice and ideals of conflict-sensitivity, and promising, more participatory advances in the ‘critical peacebuilding’/‘local turn’ literatures, to argue the case for more genuinely participatory, grassroots conflict analysis to augment existing analysis underpinning the planning and implementation of development-humanitarian agency projects. Concluding that none yet offer tools to facilitate participation of marginalised poor, often functionally non-literate locals, into the actual analysis of conflict, it then presents and reflects upon the trial of a new, highly participatory conflict analysis approach, developed by the authors to complement a specific, highly participatory development programme in Myanmar.
Even though the concept of social capital has been around for a long time, it has recently gained a growing currency in academic literature on social and economic development. Numerous theorists, policy analysts, government officials and even international institutions such as the World Bank have attempted to theorize social capital as an indispensable prelude to economic development and democratization. Contrary to this line of argumentation, there is in fact a weak positive correlation between social capital, economic development and a vibrant democracy. The ascendancy of social capital lies in its potential to facilitate the consolidation of neo-liberal project. Social capital is conducive to externalizing the inherent contradictions of capitalist market economy, blurring the unequal power relations, and re-personalizing social responsibilities for economic outcomes which are the main objectives of neo-liberalism.
Development institutions have adopted models of community development that prioritise empowerment. However, many of these models have transformed a collective, process-oriented understanding of empowerment into one that focuses on individual outcomes and results all too often in project failure. This article presents a case study of a World Bank community-driven development (CDD) project implemented in agrarian settlements in north-eastern Brazil. Using mixed methods, the article finds that because this CDD approach failed to conceptualise power differences, stemming from education, income and the rural–urban divide, it overlooked the disadvantage marginalised communities would have when interacting with technical agencies and soliciting contractors. The power differences created by these inequities enabled those very technical agencies and contractors intended to support CDD subprojects to take advantage of participant communities through providing low-quality services and products. The project also failed to provide quality technical assistance for a duration sufficient to develop the skills community members required to carry out successful, productive subprojects. These findings suggest that CDD projects need to incorporate a broader conception of empowerment that addresses group-level power differences to transform the relations between participants and those on whom they depend, and thereby contribute to project success.
Integrating local knowledge about environmental and socioeconomic circumstances is necessary in order for development efforts to be responsive to local realities and needs. However, knowledge-integration in development planning is not a straightforward process. Drawing on philosophical theory, in this paper, I identify and discuss four challenges to knowledge integration and how they can be overcome. First, practical challenges refer to the many feasibility constraints that limit inclusion of local communities, including lack of time and financial resources as well as the uncertainty and availability of reliable data. Second, normative challenges refer to the differences in normative status between different stakeholders as a result of existing power structures, socioeconomic inequalities, and marginalization of minority groups and which affect the ability of these groups to express their knowledge. Third, epistemic challenges refer to differences in levels and kinds of knowledge that different stakeholders possess and which complicate the successful communication of knowledge between stakeholders. Lastly, ontological challenges refer to the extent to which the knowledge of different stakeholders makes sense against different worldviews and the extent to which knowledge can be successfully communicated to stakeholders with different ontologies.
Participation must be seen as political. There are always tensions underlying issues such as who is involved, how, and on whose terms. While participation has the potential to challenge patterns of dominance, it may also be the means through which existing power relations are entrenched and reproduced. The arenas in which people perceive their interests and judge whether they can express them are not neutral. Participation may take place for a whole range of unfree reasons. It is important to see participation as a dynamic process, and to understand that its own form and function can become a focus for struggle.
Recent discussions in development have moved away from holistic theorisation towards more localised, empirical and inductive approaches. In development practice there has been a parallel move towards local 'participation' and 'empowerment', which has produced, albeit with very different agendas, a high level of agreement between actors and institutions of the 'new' Left and the 'new' Right. This paper examines the manifestations of this move in four key political arenas: decentralised service delivery, participatory development, social capital formation and local development, and collective actions for 'radical democracy'. We argue that, by focusing so heavily on 'the local', the see manifestations tend to underplay both local inequalities and power relations as well as national and transnational economic and political forces. Following from this, we advocate a stronger emphasis on the politics of the local, ie on the political use of 'the local' by hegemonic and counter-hegemonic interests.
The liberal and republican models of democracy are criticized from the standpoint of deliberative politics as conceived by the discourse theory. The normative implications of this model of deliberative politics are stronger than in the liberal model but weaker than in the republican one. Elements of both are articulated by it into a new form.
Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) methods are increasingly taken up by public sector organizations as well as NGOs among whom they have been pioneered. While PRA methods are successfully employed in a variety of project planning situations, and with increasing sophistication, in some contexts the practice of PRA faces constraints. This article examines the constraints as experienced in the early stages of one project, and suggests some more general issues to which these point. In particular, it is suggested that, as participatory exercises, PRAs involve ‘public’ social events which construct ‘local knowledge’ in ways that are strongly influenced by existing social relationships. It suggests that information for planning is shaped by relations of power and gender, and by the investigators themselves; and that certain kinds of knowledge are often excluded. Finally, the paper suggests that as a method for articulating existing local knowledge, PRA needs to be complemented by other methods of ‘participation’ which generate the changed awareness and new ways of knowing, which are necessary to locally-controlled innovation and change.
Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) describes a growing family of approaches and methods to enable local people to share, enhance and analyze their knowledge of life and conditions, to plan and to act. PRA has sources in activist participatory research, agroecosystem analysis, applied anthropology, field research on farming systems, and rapid rural appraisal (RRA). In RRA information is more elicited and extracted by outsiders; in PRA it is more shared and owned by local people. Participatory methods include mapping and modeling, transect walks, matrix scoring, seasonal calendars, trend and change analysis, well-being and wealth ranking and grouping, and analytical diagramming. PRA applications include natural resources management, agriculture, poverty and social programs, and health and food security. Dominant behavior by outsiders may explain why it has taken until the 1990s for the analytical capabilities of local people to be better recognized and for PRA to emerge, grow and spread.
Much of the spread of participatory rural appraisal (PRA) as an emerging family of approaches and methods has been lateral, South–South, through experiential learning and changes in behavior, with different local applications. Rapid spread has made quality assurance a concern, with dangers from “instant fashion”, rushing, formalism and ruts. Promising potentials include farmers' own farming systems research, alternatives to questionaire surveys, monitoring, evaluation and lateral spread by local people, empowerment of the poorer and weaker, and policy review. Changes in personal behavior and attitudes, and in organizational cultures, are implied. PRA parallels and resonates with paradigm shifts in the social and natural sciences, business management, and development thinking, supporting decentralization, local diversity, and personal responsibility.
The more significant principles of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) concern the behavior and attitudes of outsider facilitators, including not rushing, “handing over the stick,” and being self-critically aware. The power and popularity of PRA are partly explained by the unexpected analytical abilities of local people when catalyzed by relaxed rapport, and expressed through sequences of participatory and especially visual methods. Evidence to date shows high validity and reliability of information shared by local people through PRA compared with data from more traditional methods. Explanations include reversals and shifts of emphasis: from etic to emic, closed to open, individual to group, verbal to visual, and measuring to comparing; and from extracting information to empowering local analysts.
This book is a sequel to the author's 'Rural development: putting the last first', and attempts to identify the mistakes made by professionals working in nongovernmental organisations, governmental organisations, and universities in their approaches to promoting rural development. Through analysing mistakes of the past and commonly held myths, the author argues that development professionals now need new approaches for interacting, learning and knowing. The role of methodological innovations such as participatory rural appraisal is stressed. It is argued that personal, professional, and institutional change is essential if the realities of the poor are to receive greater recognition. Self-critical awareness and changes in concepts, values, methods and behaviour must be developed by development professionals to promote local participatory approaches and empowerment.
Incl. bibliographical notes and references, index, list of abbreviations
Incl. annexes, bibliographical notes and references
In recent years, participatory development has become an established orthodoxy among development agencies across the political spectrum; at the same time, the importance of consulting with and recruiting women has been highlighted in most discussions of participatory strategies. Drawing on the author's own research and a range of secondary sources, this article focuses on gender aspects of participatory projects. The evidence suggests that gender inequalities in resources, time availability and power, influence the activities, priorities and framework of participatory projects just as much as 'top-down' development and market activities. Contrary to the view of a number of writers and activists on participatory development, increasing the numbers of women involved in participatory projects cannot, therefore, be seen as a soft alternative to specific attention to change in gender inequality. Meeting the demands of poor women in the South will require not only local participatory projects, but a linking with wider movements for change in the national and international development agenda.
Incluye bibliografía e índice
Examines the political and ethical problems arising in the course of undertaking participatory research in developing countries. Effect of participatory research in the knowledge creating process; Need for a complete form of a dialogic research; Existence of struggles within academies and organizations.
Introduction: the democratic moment and the problem of difference; and Toward a deliberative model of democratic legitimacy
- S Benhabib
Benhabib, S (1996) Introduction: the democratic moment and the problem of difference; and Toward a deliberative model of democratic legitimacy, both in: Benhabib (ed), Democracy and Difference: Contesting the Boundaries of the Political, pp 3–18;
- Benhabib S