Acknowledging process: PRA projects in the alpine regions of Switzerland: "to get to grips with the future together"

The paper describes how PRA has been successfully used in an agricultural context in Switzerland since the late 1980s. It starts with a brief history of the use of PRA methods in Switzerland. The main focus is a PRA workshop which was organised by the Agricultural Extension Centre (LBL) with aim of analyzing the situation of alpine communities and generating new ideas for future development. A two-day introduction to the methods and philosophy of PRA was followed by fieldwork in three rural alpine communities. The paper discusses the process and methods used during the fieldwork. It was observed that PRA was effective in the communities where income was relatively evenly distributed, but that in a community with greater income differences a comparatively small group attempted to guard its privileges and prevent any sort of change.