Participatory rural appraisal: a quick-and-dirty critique

The article discusses four areas of concern in current PRA practice. Firstly, it is likely that investment in careful, long-term and comparative on-the-ground social research will be curtailed in favour of quicker data-gathering using PRA methods. A second concern is whether the routinisation of PRA within the bureaucratic processes of development agencies contradict or divert the original aim of giving more voice and control to the rural poor. A third issue is the lack of clarity on where RRA/PRA practitioners stand in relation to the major debates in social theory. What is to be made of a participatory development exercise that assumes there is a clear split between structure and action, and where structure takes precedence over action? A fourth issue is the question of whether participative initiatives ever break free from the context of local politics. The author argues for a move towards interventions in which attention focuses on action as a key component in the establishment of an emancipatory learning environment.