Concepts, Formats, and Methods of Participation: Theory and Practice (original) (raw)
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Participation: Rhetoric and reality
… based on a case study in …, 2006
Based on the views of a number of stakeholders involved in the development of small reservoir systems in the Upper East Region of Ghana in West Africa, this article examines the importance of understanding the stakeholders whom the international development community wants to include in its participatory approaches. The article also aims to show that terms such as participation, participatory approach and participatory planning are often used in project proposals, but that in reality the extent to which stakeholders are actually able to participate in projects is limited. This limitation is often due to a lack of understanding by the project organisation of the interests and views of the stakeholders which are then not incorporated in the project process. A stakeholder analysis could provide more insight in the interests, goals and views of all stakeholders involved in a project, as well as in the differences between the stakeholders. In the development of water resources, the long-term sustainability of a project's work is dependent on the manner in which relevant (often local) stakeholders continue the process after the official time of the project has ended. Thus, since the project is dependent on the involvement of relevant stakeholders, formulation of adequate and appropriate forms of stakeholder engagement that will ensure information exchange and participation is essential. However, as the case study shows, such analyses were not always carried out, thus leading to a number of problems with project implementation and also with transplantation from one region, district or community to another.
I reflect on the preceding five contributions in this issue by focusing on the power dimensions of participation. I emphasize how power underlies and frames not only the activities and management of participatory development, but also our own personal/institutional involvement as development researchers and workers. I end with some thoughts on where these inescapable power dynamics leave our engagement with participatory development.
Unpacking ‘Participation’: models, meanings and practices
Community Development Journal, 2008
The world over, public institutions appear to be responding to the calls voiced by activists, development practitioners and progressive thinkers for greater public involvement in making the decisions that matter and holding governments to account for following through on their commitments. Yet what exactly 'participation' means to these different actors can vary enormously. This article explores some of the meanings and practices associated with participation, in theory and in practice. It suggests that it is vital to pay closer attention to who is participating, in what and for whose benefit. Vagueness about what participation means may have helped the promise of public involvement gain purchase, but it may be time for more of what Cohen and Uphoff term 'clarity through specificity' if the call for more participation is to realize its democratizing promise.
The Meaning of Participation: Reflections on Our Study
2021
In Chapter 10.1007/978-3-030-55567-2_1 we provided a discussion of participatory research as a method for doing research, and provided an outline of what we did in the research project upon which this book is based. In this final chapter, we reflect back on our experiences of doing a participatory research project of this kind.
Unfolding Participation. What do we mean by participation – conceptually and in practice
Aarhus Series on Human Centered Computing, 2015
The aim of the Unfolding Participation workshop is to outline an agenda for the next 10 years of participatory design (PD) and participatory human computer interaction (HCI) research. We will do that through a double strategy: 1) by critically interrogating the concept of participation (unfolding the concept itself), while at the same time, 2) reflecting on the way that participation unfolds across different participatory configurations. We invite researchers and practitioners from PD and HCI and fields in which information technology mediated participation is embedded (e.g. in political studies, urban planning, participatory arts, business, science and technology studies) to bring a plurality of perspectives and expertise related to participation.
Presentation: Methodological challenges in participation research
Participation is a well-established subject in the social sciences. Individual participation, non-governmental organizations, interest groups, and social movements have all been important fields of research for years, at least among sociologists and political scientists. Each of these areas has also developed its own methodological traditions and debates, permitting new researchers entering the field to have a clear idea of the choices offered them if they want to study the identities of participants in social movements or the new forms of online participation.