Participation for What:Social change or social control?

Georgina Gomez, Ariane Corradi, Pedro Goulart and Rose Namara (editors)

Tags: Worldwide , Civil Society Building
Additional tags: Particiopation development citizen engagement

'Participation for What' is about meaningful participation in development. How and when does it work? What are the downsides? And what does it imply for development practice and research? This book brings together a rich collection of essays on participation by Phd -  students from the Institute of Social Studies

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.

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 wrote   the introduction and provided every article with comments. Former   ISS-rector Louk de La Rive Box wrote the foreword.

You can download the whole book or its specific chapters below. For a hardcopy, you can contact us on info@hivos.net

• Full Book 

• Chapter 1 Participation between tyranny and emancipation 

• Chapter 2 Mouthpieces of the poor or dancing to the tunes of government and donors? NGOs in Uganda's poverty reduction programmes

• Chapter 3 Curtailing clientalism or restricting participation? Anti-poverty policymaking in Chile 

• Chapter 4 Non-participatory reform and institutional gaps: the re-organization of Argentina's industrial sector in the nineties 

• Chapter 5 Private sector reform of Egyptian solid waste management 

• Chapter 6 Actors' interactions at the policy level and implications for exclusion:Nepal's community forestry

• Chapter 7 Speaking up: citizen demands for accountability and improved services in a Nairobi Slum 

• Chapter 8 When participation and empowerment are not enough: Water governance and social transformation in the Lagos Sao Jao River Basin Brazil

• Chapter 9 Engaging indigenous governance in partnerships for conservation: Lessons from Selva de Mateven, Colombian Amazon