Simon Bell and Stephen Morse: Resilient participation: saving the human project? (original) (raw)

2015, Agriculture and Human Values

This book, written by two experienced and respected experts in stakeholder participation, left me with mixed feelings. On one level, the book presents a potentially useful new participatory methodology called Triple Task (TT) which is an attempt by the authors to help themselves and others to understand, in the first instance (TT Mode 1) ‘how participation happens, what works and what does not work, and how to improve the ability of participation to make things flow’ (p. 10), and in the second instance (TT Mode 2) to ‘help groups explore their current situation and (…) improve their functioning and ultimately make a positive contribution to the lives of others’ (p. 4). In itself TT may offer additional analytical and research insights. However, the authors situate their efforts as a contribution to saving ‘the Human Project’; never clearly defined, the term seems to refer to the entirety of human activity across history and into the future. Overall there is a number of deeply problematic assumptions the authors make to position participation, and Triple Task, as the saving graces of human survival.