Open Access Publication: Participation for What?

Social Change or Social Control?

Tags: Worldwide , Civil Society Building

Hereby we present you the digital version of the book: "Participation For What, Social Change or Social Control?". The publication is special, both content-wise and process-wise, as it is entirely produced by (alumni and present) ISS PhD students, and Open Acces available. The book contains seven articles that were carefully selected out of the contributions for the Development Dialogue, which was held at ISS in 2008. All the articles question participatory processes and practices in development: participation by whom, for what, and how? These remain vital questions for moving forward in building new narratives and generating appropriate development strategies.

The editorial team consisted of ex- and current ISS PhD studentsRose Namara (Uganda), Georgina Gomez (Argentina), Ariane Corradi (Brazil) and Pedro Goulart (Portugal), while Erhard Berner (Staff Group 3) wrote the introduction and provided every article with comments. Former ISS-rector Louk de La Rive Box wrote the foreword. Once the project was ready to be carried forward, it found a place with the ISS-Hivos Civil Society Building Knowledge Programme, which int.al. aims to stimulate knowledge generation by supporting innovative research publications. Kees Biekart and Marlieke Kieboom wrote the preface, which you can preview below.

If you wish to just have a specific chapter, you may email your request to kieboom@iss.nl

PREFACE

I participate
You participate
He/She participates
We participate
But..
They decide

These phrases were written not long ago on a chalkboard in Bolivia by an informant who wanted to explain the adverse effect of the Law of Popular Participation. It suggests that participation as a concept is meaningful, whilst in practice it can become hollow because decision making processes are often dominated by elites.

Participation of local communities and civil society groups in intervention strategies are considered key in development practice. It has even reached a certain inviolable status since the development sector was criticized for carrying out top-down policies. Consequently, a certain discomfort exists about the questioning of content and use of participatory methods and approaches. However, participation for whom, by whom, for what, and how? These remain vital questions for moving forward in building new narratives and generating appropriate development strategies.

In order to contribute to debates on Civil Society Building (CSB), Humanist Institute for Co-operation with Developing Countries –Hivos, and the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in 2005 created the Civil Society Building Knowledge Programme. The aim was to better understand and improve the contribution of Civil Society Building efforts to bring about changes in the unequal balance of power in favour of vulnerable and marginalized groups. At the core of this collaboration is the interaction between practitioners, researchers, and social activists to facilitate the generation, dissemination, and application of knowledge. By integrating these various forms of knowledge, new insights can be created and strategies formulated that contribute to the development of new policies and practices.

As participatory approaches play an important role in our programme, we are also keen to rethink these. One way to do so is to stimulate knowledge generation by supporting innovative research publications. The present publication contains contributions by a variety of young scholars from the Global South who critically examine current participation discourses and their application in practice. We believe this provides new challenging perspectives and ideas for the debate. But we would agree with the Bolivian practitioner: the reader decides.

Marlieke Kieboom
Kees Biekart
(Hivos-ISS Civil Society Building Knowledge Programme)