Who's a goody? Demythologizing the PRA agenda

This article reviews three books written by development professionals about Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) approaches. The books reviewed are Who Changes? Institutionalising Participation in Development, (Blackburn, J. and Holland, J. eds), Whose Voice? Participatory Research and Policy Change (Holland, J. and Blackburn, J. eds) and The Myth of Community: Gender Issues in Participatory Development (Gujit, I. and Kaul Shah, M. eds). Through an examination of the above, the author concludes that the new PRA agenda advocates change in 4 areas: in the mindsets of development professionals, in the poor, in development organisations, and in policy and policy-making processes. The author then provides a critique of some aspects of the books arguing, amongst others, that the barriers to true participation caused by gender is not seriously tackled in Who Changes? and Whose Voice? The final section provides a critique of PRA more generally and describes how the authors of the books suggest that a more pragmatic approach to PRA be adopted.