Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
5.2 CIVIL SOCIETY,
SOCIAL CAPITAL AND
NON-GOVERNMENTAL
ORGANIZATIONS
(NGOS)
Participatory Development and
Empowerment
The emergence of participatory development has brought about signifi-
cant transformations in the ways in which development is constructed
and articulated, and it has become firmly embedded in twenty-first
century notions of legitimacy, civic engagement and citizenship.
Grounded in the concepts of social exclusion and empowerment, par-
ticipation advocates the involvement of local people in the development
projects that impact upon their lives. Participatory development prom-
ises to deliver social inclusion through programmes that are designed
to listen to, and act upon, the voices of local marginalized groups in
society. Interest in participation has accompanied development theory
and practice since the 1970s, and it originated as a radical backlash
against top-down, expert-led modernist strategies that were disempow-
ering for local communities (Mohan, 2008). Stemming from the work of
Paul Freire on participatory research and participatory planning in
physical development projects of the 1970s, the concept was further
operationalized through Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) by Robert
Chambers (see Chapter 3.1). In the 1990s, a growing body of literature
on different perspectives on participatory development began to frame
academic and policy discourse. Originally based on the principle that
local development projects should be 'people-driven' and inclusionary,
