Rapid appraisal for rural development.

It introduces the idea of rapid appraisal within the context of rural development. Its key themes are the cultural tensions that arise in rural development research efforts; the scope of RRA, its function and principles, and its challenge in developing a new professionalism, based on rigour and cost effectiveness. In emphasizing the need for eclecticism, inventiveness and versatility, and in questioning some conventional values in research, especially in statistics, it does not undervalue traditional standards and methods where they fit well. It acknowledges that it is easy to be rapid and wrong.