Description
Book SynopsisCalls for greater participation of those affected by development interventions have a long history. This expert reader explores the conceptual and methodological dimensions of participatory research and the politics and practice of participation in development. Through excerpts from the texts that have inspired contemporary advocates of participation, accounts of the principles of participatory research and empirical studies that show some of the complexities of participation in practice, it offers a range of reflections on participation that will be of interest to those new to the field and experienced practitioners alike. Bringing together for the first time classic and contemporary writings from a literature that spans a century, it offers a unique perspective on the possibilities and dilemmas that face those seeking to enable those affected by development projects, programmes and policies.
Trade ReviewCornwall's Participation Reader, which brings together some of the most insightful writings on the discourses, politics and practice of participation in development since the 1960s, is a valuable document of record. The articles are lively, well written and provide the necessary critical engagement with one of the most contentious but often taken for granted ideas in development. The Participation Reader is certain to become a must read for all students, teachers, researchers and practitioners of development. * Dzodzi Tsikata, University of Ghana *
Andrea Cornwall has created a powerful go-to volume on participation encompassing foundational literature, thoughtful reflections on processes and theories, insightful critiques and inspiring descriptions of participatory initiatives. Citizens, organizers, students and researchers will return to The Participation Reader again and again for grounded analyses of the problems and possibilities of "participation". * Louise Fortmann, Berkeley *
This volume is a compelling and critical look at both the concept and practice of participation, a topic that has been afflicted, in the words of one its contributors, by "popularity without clarity". It is a comprehensive effort at advancing clarity, and offers convincing analyses of the oversimplification, depoliticization, and instrumentalization that has characterized the debates and discourse on participation in recent times. With an impressive array of writers, including leading participation theorists and practitioners from around the world, we are led systematically through definitions, principles, methodologies, case studies and critiques, and emerge with sharper conceptual and strategic insights for advancing the democratization project. * Srilatha Batliwala, Scholar Associate, Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) *
Table of ContentsPart I - What is Participation? 1. A Ladder of Citizen Participation - Sherry R. Arnstein 2. The Many Faces of Participation - Matthias Stiefel and Marshall Wolfe 3. What is Meant by People's Participation? - N. C. Saxena 4. Participation's Place in Rural Development: Seeking Clarity Through Specificity - John Cohen and Norman Uphoff 5. Depoliticizing Development: the Uses and Abuses of Participation - Sarah White 6. Participation: the Ascendancy of a Buzzword in the Neo-Liberal Era - Pablo Alejandro Leal Part II - Participatory Methodologies: Principles and Applications 7. Production and Diffusion of New Knowledge - Orlando Fals Borda 8. The Historical Roots and Contemporary Urges in Participatory Research - Rajesh Tandon 9. New Paradigm Research Manifesto - New Paradigm Research Group London 10. Doing Feminist Participatory Research - Patricia Maguire 11. Cooperative Inquiry - Peter Reason 12. PRA Five Years Later - Robert Chambers and Irene Guijt 13. Ten Myths About PRA - Ian Scoones 14. Growing From the Grassroots: Building Participatory Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Methods in PARC - Janet Symes and Sa'ed Jasser 15. Tools for Empowerment: Community Exchanges - Sheela Patel 16. Citizens Juries: a Radical Alternative for Social Research - Tom Wakeford 17. Voices Aloud: Making Communication and Change Together - Oga Steve Abah 18. Powerful Grassroots Women Communicators: Participatory Video in Bangladesh - Renuka Bery and Sara Stuart Part III - Community and Participatory Development: Principles and Practice 19. Managing Local Participation: Rhetoric and Reality - Robert Chambers 20. Community Participation: History, Concepts and Controversies - James Midgley 21. The Making and Marketing of Participatory Development - David Mosse 22. Whose Voices? Whose Choices? Reflections on Gender and Participatory Development - Andrea Cornwall 23. Ethnicity and Participatory Development Methods in Botswana: Some Participants Are to Be Seen and Not Heard - Tlamelo Mompati and Gerard Prinsen 24. Towards a Repoliticization of Participatory Development: Political Capabilities and Spaces of Empowerment - Glyn Williams Part IV - Participaton in Governance 25. Towards Participatory Local Governance: Six Propositions for Discussion - John Gaventa 26. The Politics of Domesticating Participation in Rural India - Ranjita Mohanty 27. Aiding Policy? Civil society Engagement in Tanzania's PRSP - Elaina Mack 28. Participation Without Representation: Chiefs, Councils and Forestry Law in the West African Sahel - Jesse C. Ribo 29. Talking Politics in Participatory Governance - Gianpaolo Baocchi 30. Co-Governance for Accountability: Beyond 'Exit' and 'Voice' - John Ackerman Part V - Participation as Collective Action: Mobilization, Insurgency and Struggle 31. Users as Citizens: Collective Action and the Local Governance of Welfare - Marion Barnes 32. Insurgency and Spaces of Active Citizenship: the Story of the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign in South Africa - Faranak Miraftab and Shana Wills 33. Pedagogical Guerrillas, Armed Democrats and Revolutionary Counter-Publics: Examining Paradox in the Zapatista Uprising in Chiapas, Mexico - Josee Johnston 34. Bodies as Sites of Struggle: Naripokkho and the Movement for Women's Rights in Bangladesh - Shireen Huq 35. Citizenship: a Perverse Confluence - Evelina Dagnino
