Development,research and participation: Towards a critique of participatory rural appraisal methods

This article examines the theory and techniques used in participatory rural appraisal (PRA), describes the emergence of PRA as a response to conventional approaches in developmental research, and offers a critique of PRA from an anthropological perspective. It is argued that PRA is a promising alternative to conventional development research methods but has certain weaknesses which undermine its overall aims. Of central concern are assumptions about social context. The author suggests that a more critical perspective should be incorporated into PRA to overcome its present limitations.     

Beyond community participation? Alternative routes to civil engagement and development in South Africa

Although community participation still enjoys a high level of support across various sectors in South Africa, its practice is fraught with conceptual and practical difficulties. This paper starts out by examining some of the problems and limitations associated with community participation, including the heterogeneity and fragmentation of many poor communities, the lack of social and material resources and community members' expectations of receiving a return from their involvement in development projects. Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) or participatory learning and action (PLA) is used as an example to illustrate some of the conceptual and theoretical limitations that characterise most approaches to participatory development. In particular it is argued that approaches such as PRA/PLA lack the theoretical basis for effectively getting to grips with the problems of participatory development. What is needed is a conceptual framework not only to understand the responses of communities, but also to locate such communities within their socio-economic contexts. The second part of the paper therefore examines three developments in social science theory that may be able to contribute to the development of a richer conceptual framework for popular participation. These are the concept of social capital, the asset-based approach to development, and the debate around the role of the state in development.     

Participatory research as a tool for community development

In Third World countries, where resources are scarce, social scientists are confronted with the challenge of providing knowledge and services relevant to national development. This paper attempts to address this ‘relevance’ question by exploring the relationship between participatory research (as a social science research paradigm) and community development. The assumption is that people possess indigenous skills and knowledge, but that these need to be harnessed and refined in order that they can be effectively utilised in the planning and implementation of development processes. It is argued that human capacity building and empowerment are core components of participatory research and a prerequisite for appropriate development. A participatory research project in a rural resettlement village in the Ciskei is presented to illustrate the implementation of participatory research as a tool for community development.     

Using Giddens's theory of ‘structuration’ and Freirean philosophy to understand participation in the Alexandra Renewal Project

The main critique raised against participatory approaches to development is that they do not adequately address issues of politics and power. This paper contributes to the theory and practice of participation by introducing a framework drawn from Freirean philosophy and applying Giddens's theory of ‘structuration’ to that philosophy. Specifically, it focuses on the relocation of people from the banks of the Jukskei River as part of the Alexandra Renewal Project. It draws on the author's interviews with key local-level stakeholders, including government leaders, managers of the Alexandra Renewal Project, and those directly involved with facilitating the participation of intended beneficiaries in Alexandra. The study uses Giddens's theory to conclude that although participatory processes may be intended to (in Freire's words) domesticate, the domesticating or exclusionary nature of the intervention provides the basis upon which people liberate themselves.     

Paradox of Empowerment: Reflections on a Case Study from Northern Ghana

In recent years the “development” industry has began to incorporate into its vocabulary notions about the “empowerment of the poor,” “participatory democracy,” “gender in development” etc. as part of a strategy for poverty alleviation in the developing world. This paper critically examines the notion of participation as the basis of empowerment in the context of a joint Canadian–Ghanaian financed rural development project in the Northern Region of Ghana. The paper argues that because of the inherent goodness of the notion of participation, it has become a substitute for the structural reforms needed for social change. The paper raises questions not just about the terms and mode of participation but further points out that reference to the term “village” or “community” as the basis of participation is simplistic and problematic. The paper also questions the feasibility of the institutional and administrative structures within which such concepts may be realized.     

The participatory approach: Contradiction and co-option in Burkina Faso

“Participation” has become overwhelmingly popular in recent years without sufficient attention paid to its ambiguities. This paper critically examines participatory development, first by presenting an overview of types and degrees of participation and then through the analysis of a case study of a non-formal education project in Burkina Faso. The intention is to articulate the difficulties in implementing the “genuine” participation which is espoused at academic and policy levels by presenting a case in which different stakeholders employ participation to their advantage and the realities of the field act as barriers to participatory development.     

Participatory multi-criteria decision analysis: a new tool for integrated development planning

This article proposes a new method for implementing integrated development planning as envisioned by the Local Government Municipal Systems Act of South Africa (2000). The method draws together stakeholders who fall into three broad groups: the communities who live in the municipal area, municipal officials and the elected local politicians. It is grounded in the principles of participatory action research, in which the participation of all interested and affected parties is valued. Within this participatory framework, tools of multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) are used to support the decision-making process by structuring and quantifying difficult decisions that need to be addressed. Community development measurement scales are formulated by communities, and form the basis for evaluations of proposed projects and ongoing monitoring of these communities' progress.     

Does Community Participation Produce Dividends in Social Investment Fund Projects?

Social investment funds (SIFs) aim to strengthen local capacity for design, implementation, and maintenance of social and economic infrastructure projects and to increase community participation in ways that will promote their sustainability and effectiveness. We explore key features of recent SIFs, intended to promote decentralized, participatory decision-making, and management of projects, in SIF-led education projects in Honduras. We investigate empirically whether efforts to implement a participatory approach improve the outcomes of these projects and community members’ perceptions of their effectiveness. The findings identify elements of the participatory methodology which were associated with increased household and community participation and better household opinions of the projects and also show a link between participation and the probability of children’s regular school attendance.     

智慧城市建设是否会提升社会治理成效

该研究利用逻辑（Logit）回归模型和中国社会状况综合调查（CSS）数据，探讨了智慧城市建设对社会治理成效的影响。研究聚焦于智慧城市建设对社会总体评价、公众参与、社会保障等方面的作用，并考虑了年龄、性别、婚姻状况等控制变量，使用网络使用作为工具变量以解决内生性问题。实证结果显示，智慧城市建设显著提升了社会总体评价和公众参与，特别是在社会保障服务评价方面，但对社会信任和社会公平的影响不显著。这些发现表明了智慧城市在提高社会治理效率和改善市民生活质量方面的潜力，对智慧城市在社会治理现代化中的作用提供了实证支持，研究也为智慧城市的发展和治理模式创新提供了重要的理论和实证依据。     

Participatory Exclusions,Community Forestry,and Gender: An Analysis for South Asia and a Conceptual Framework

The idea of people's participation has long been part of development thinking. But today the management of local natural resources by village communities is widely accepted as an institutional imperative. It is therefore essential to examine how these institutions perform, especially from the perspective of the more disadvantaged. Based on extensive fieldwork among community forestry groups in India and Nepal, and existing case studies, this paper demonstrates how seemingly participatory institutions can exclude significant sections, such as women. It provides a typology of participation, spells out the gender equity and efficiency implications of such exclusions, and analyzes what underlies them. It also outlines a conceptual framework to help analyze the process of gender exclusion and how it might be alleviated.     

“后现代”公共行政话语下的公民参与问题研究

公民参与被看作是改善政府治理效果和提升公共服务水平的新举措.虽然参与式民主在很长的时间里都不是民主理论研究的主要领域,但随着“后现代”社会的来临,政府治理更加强调对话与服务,而不是单纯的回应和管理,以通往“后现代”公共行政.公共行政话语理论是“后现代”公共行政理论的一个重要分支,它将公共行政理论看作是一种“语言”,强调“想象”和“直觉”的重要性,为公民参与研究提供了理论基础和新的研究路径.因此,在“后现代”公共行政话语下对公民参与问题进行研究,有助于我们更深入了解公民参与的内涵和实现方式,从而走向民主化的公民参与.     

国外会展问题研究综述

近年来,会展业因其强大的经济带动效应和社会影响力吸引着越来越多的关注。会展业的成长与各行各业的发展密不可分,从长远来看,会展业在我国经济发展中的地位和作用非常突出。国外关于会展的研究比较系统而深入,已取得了相当数量的研究成果。论文通过对国外有关会展的文献进行梳理,认为国外关于会展的学术研究主要集中于会展影响研究、会展绩效评估绩效、参展决策与动机、展会管理与服务等四个主题,并且对此进行系统综述,文末对国外该领域现有文献的研究局限作了简要分析,期望能为国内相关研究提供有益的借鉴。     

Computable General Equilibrium Models,Adjustment and the Poor in Africa

Sahn and others at Cornell have conducted a major research program on the impact of adjustment policies on the poor in Africa, making use of Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models. Their work was summarized in World Development April 1996. They concluded that adjustment policies have not hurt and may have helped the poor. This paper shows that such conclusions are highly dependent on the assumptions made about parameters, relationships and closure in the models. Moreover, in Madagascar and Tanzania, where the Cornell models suggest the poor benefited from adjustment, there is evidence of worsening social and economic indicators. Our conclusion is that the Cornell results are more a reflection of the assumptions made in developing the CGE models than of reality.     

Cointegration and causality between fertility and female labor participation in Taiwan: A multivariate approach

Applying Hsiao's version of Granger causality, this paper uncovers no causality from fertility to female labor participation and fails to find the expected relationship that female labor participation negatively predicts fertility in Taiwan. This indicates that working women in Taiwan do not necessarily have fewer children. The finding of this study contradicts the results obtained when using the conventional regression method which finds bidirectional relationship between fertility and female labor participation. In addition, this study detects that education exerts a great influence on female labor participation but not on fertility.     

Factor substitution and manpower planning reconsidered

Summary This paper explores anew the factor substitution assumptions of manpower planning activities. It finds several flaws in the oft-repeated argument that manpower planning studies should be abandoned in favor of rate of return analysis because the planning approach depends upon the assumption of fixed-coefficient production functions and the latter approach does not. For one thing, the choice of methodological approach depends upon matters other than the observed value of the elasticity of substitution. For another, it is not clear that factor substitutability has necessarily been ignored in either the theory or practice of manpower planning.I am Indebted both to a number of my OSU colleagues and to the Editors of this Journal for helpful comments on a preliminary draft of this paper. For customary reasons, I assume full responsibility for any remaining errors of fact or interpretation. Since a portion of the paper draws upon research supported by an award to the OSU Center for Human Resource Research from the National Science Foundation, I would also like to acknowledge that support. The views expressed, of course, should not necessarily be attributed to the National Science Foundation.     

丹麦社会企业的培育及对中国的启示

社会企业作为当今企业研究的新型领域，是各国争相培育发展的重点。着眼于丹麦社会企业的培育与发展，首先通过对比欧洲培育社会企业的方式来突出丹麦社会企业培育的特殊性，然后结合复杂的社会背景将丹麦社会企业的发展划分为孕育、萌芽和蓬勃发展三个阶段来探寻丹麦社会企业培育之路，最后借鉴丹麦经验，社会企业在培育中需要建立公共部门建立良好的伙伴关系、跨部门合作建立规范的政策体系和制度环境、倡导利益相关人的多方参与等方面。     

Participation's place in rural development: Seeking clarity through specificity

Over the past few years, development specialists have expressed increasing concern over the lack of progress in altering the plight of the rural poor. Towards this end they are shifting from the capital-investment growth models of the 1960s to the more people-centred basic- needs approaches that are increasingly dominating development thinking in the 1970s. In the process, they are turning to a number of related development strategies, one of the most important and least understood of which is ‘popular participation’. Increasing numbers of studies and activities are being undertaken to bolster government and donor capacity to promote participation in development programmes. Yet, with all these activities the disturbing fact is that there is little agreement on what participation is or on its basic dimensions. This article seeks to provide some order to the emergence of participatory concerns in the development literature, and to offer a carefully elaborated framework that clarifies the notion of ‘rural-development participation’ and make it applicable to total-development projects.     

Agricultural reconstruction in a consumer society: The Mboza Village project 1

While this paper draws upon research conducted in northern Natal, it has general relevance for rural development debates in South Africa today. The authors argue that it is imperative that agricultural development be located within the context of socio‐economic factors that prescribe relations of consumption and development of labour supply. Agricultural performance and the potential for agricultural development should be assessed within the context of the interrelationship between different spheres of economic exchange as well as the differential management of risk within a narrow range of marginal economic options. Serious attention should be given to the structural causes of rural poverty and the high social and economic costs associated with rural life in South Africa. Such issues are not necessarily addressed in attempts to increase rural productivity through reforming indigenous land tenure systems.     

New agricultural development criteria: a proposal for project design and implementation

An environment conducive to a viable emerging agricultural sector is developing in South Africa, but it has yet to benefit most resource-poor producers. Some of the crucial constraints are accessibility and affordability of resources and services. Centrally managed agricultural projects as the main historical development model have largely failed to live up to the expectation that this would be the ‘cutting edge’ of development. This paper argues that the failure of these projects was partly due to four criteria for development not being sufficiently incorporated into project design and implementation: technical aspects of a project must be reconciled with social structures and realities; farmer diversity must be dealt with through focused support; business linkages must be structured and maintained; and skills development and participation must be institutionalised. Two of these criteria – dealing with diversity and facilitating participation – are elaborated on through a case study in the North West Province of South Africa. Typology analysis led to the identification of four distinct farmer types and this was followed by a Logical Framework planning process to develop a unique support strategy for each type. The objectives and activities required for each type are quantified. It is argued that this model, extending the project cycle to include the four new development criteria, constitutes a model for small farmer entrance into a competitive market.     

Fostering Effective Parental Participation in Education: Lessons from a Comparison of Reform Processes in Nicaragua and Mexico

Despite the trend to augment parental participation in school governance, we know little about what forms of participation work; nor do we know enough about the nature of reform processes that foster the most constructive forms of participation. This article compares reform experiences in Nicaragua and Mexico and finds certain responsibilities—primarily resource and personnel management—that governments should give participatory groups in order for them to take root and function. This article argues that participation can play a constructive role in education administration, but it is not an end in itself, nor can it simply be legislated. The time and effort of parents must be treated as any scarce resource and put to its most productive use.