Assessing participation - A debate from south asia

(1997) Co-editor, Assessing Participation: A Debate from South Asia. New Delhi: ITDG/Konark Publishers.

Participation', or 'Participatory Development', has become one of the orthodoxies of the mainstream one of the orthodoxies of the mainstream discourse of development. Along with the promotion of market forces and private sector in the economy and liberal institutions in politics, 'Participation' has become a cornerstone of the development interventions promoted by donors dependence on market forces and private capital is expected to generate economic growth. Liberal institutions would democratize society. Participation is not only expected to allow the involvement of wider sections of the population in the development process, but also to contribute to the distribution of fruits of economic growth.

Two decades ago, a group of researchers and practitioners of development took a fresh look at the notion of participatory development at a workshop organized by Duryog Nivaran in November 1995. Duryog Nivaran is a south Asian network in situations of natural disasters and internal conflicts. The papers presented at this work shop are brought together in this volume. The starting point of some of papers in analyzing the theme of participation is development. They look at the conceptual basis of the notion of participatory development as well as concrete experiences of its use in specific projects. For others participation is essentially a concept relevant for civil society politics.