Includes footage of Scottish villagers involved in PRA exercises, presenting diagrams and fielding questions.
This document exaines the impact of PRA training programmes held in Scotland on both the participants and the community groups providing them with field experience. The constraints and opportunities of working with these dual client groups are discussed.
Report of PRA conducted in Tomintoul, Scotland to examine the current situation of the village and the potential of forestry to enhance the livelihoods of those living in the community.
Report of a participatory health needs assessment carried out on the Roundshaw Estate by a team of residents, health, housing and youth service workers, which focused specifically on residents views on well-being on the estate and their suggestions for improving the quality of life there. The report includes a section evaluating and reflecting on the process used, which examines amongst other aspects, reactions of the community members and also the Participatory Appraisal Team to the process.
This article begins with a brief discussion of the links between the concepts of participation and social exclusion. Brief histories of three government programmes in the United States which have attempted to use participation to address poverty and social exclusion are then given. Themes emerging from these histories are outlined and their possible relevance for the South, as participation is increasingly used as an institutonalised strategy for addressing poverty.
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This volume of the Gatekeeper series from the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) looks at the economic education efforts of Highlander Research and Education Centre (Tennessee, USA) in Appalachia and its role in promoting community development. It gives a background to social problems in Appalachia and describes the Highlander project. The project concentrated on three rural communities (Dungannon, Virginia; Jelico, Tennessee; and Ivanhoe, Virginia) and was oriented towards helping communities gain knowledge necessary for local development. Community groups were offered technical and educational support for grassroots economic leadership development through a participatory process where the community could assess their own situation, and define and implement strategies for themselves. Part of the participatory methodology were oral history, community surveys, community mapping and drawings, decision-maker interviews, videos and readings, brainstorming and feasibility studies, and cultural components. Finally the outcomes of the project are examined.
The use of video in participatory research and training is a growing practice. The potentials and constraints to its use are examined in this document and a comparison made with other methods of recording, based on experiences from both 'northern' and southern' countries.
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This Special Issue of PLA Notes focuses on participatory approaches and processes in the North. It presents a variety of case studies where participatory techniques have been used in a range of sectors and contexts, the key linkage between them being their location in the 'North'. Participatory approaches have been increasingly adopted in northern countries, influenced by the long history of participatory practice in the South. Articles draw from experiences in Japan, USA, UK, Norway, Australia, Northern Ireland and Canada.
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In this introductory overview on participatory processes in the North, the authors begin by examining the transfer and spread of participatory processes, from the South to the North, where poverty still remains. It summarises the major issues arising from the articles in this special issue, as well as the threats and opportunities associated with participatory processes.
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This article is a personal reflection by the author of his work bringing innovative participatory approaches used in the South, to countries in the North. After 10 years working for Southern organisations he became increasingly aware and uneasy of what appeared to be a "one-way PRA crusade" which assumed that the North was already participatory enough, with no room for improvement. Seven years ago he started a Northern training journey, designing and facilitating PA workshops and events in countries such as Canada, Albania, Austria, the UK, Italy, Japan, Lebanon and New Zealand. This article reflects on that journey tracing its development, difficulties and learnings through the 1990s to the present day, and concludes by looking at where it might go in the future.
This book is part of a process of sharing information and experience, which started when workers at the Oxford Development Education Centre (ODEC) found that they gained valuable insights and lessons from working with colleagues from Southern countries. Together with other organisations and networks that work on community development, an effort was made to cultivate better working relationships and to share lessons with each other. A survey and covering letter was devised, and distributed through various networks. The resulting replies make up this book, which is intended to support a wider process of mutual learning for social change. The general themes and observations that arise from the survey are highlighted. This is followed by detailed survey responses provided by southern grassroots community groups, northern grassroots community groups, groups working on adult education and training, national and/or international groups based in the UK and groups based in other northern countries. The responses cover information about the community activities each group is involved in, the target groups they work with, the international partnerships they have, as well as the successes and challenges faced. There is also a section that summarises research on North/South mutual work and learning. The book concludes with a statistical analysis of the survey results, identifying gaps and future areas for support.