Participatory Learning and Action 38:
PLA Notes 38: Participatory Processes in the NorthIIED, June 2000. 104 pp.
Price: US$25.00
Guest Editors: Charlotte Flower, Paul Mincher and Susan Rimkus
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Summary
The special theme section of this issue of PLA Notes presents a variety of case studies where participatory techniques have been used, the key linkage between them being their location in the ‘North’ (for the purposes of the PLA Notes, this is defined as membership in the OECD).
Participatory approaches have been increasingly adopted in northern countries, influenced by the long history of participatory practice in the South and this issue pulls together a wide range of case studies where such techniques have been used for example, with drug users in Norway and the UK, urban planning in Japan, community development in Scotland and Ireland, an adaptation of REFLECT with immigrant women of Calgary, Canada, worker-led participatory evaluations in the USA, participatory video in the UK and participatory monitoring of an extension project in Australia, amongst others. This issue also includes a review of the Francophone Exchange for participatory practitioners (April 2000), as well as two articles on general PLA topics.
Editorial
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1. Participatory learning and action or participatory acting?
Thackwray Driver and Axel Kravatzky
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Abstract
PLA is a family of methodologies that is supposed to enable stakeholders to learn and to take action for positive change. There is a danger, however, that a project using participatory methodologies can get stuck in 'theatre play', where the stakeholders, including PLA practitioners, take up roles that are well rehearsed and where the outcome has already been written into the script. With the benefit of hindsight, this is exactly what happened in the project described.
2. Changing professional attitudes: complementing use of participatory techniques with attention to the 'here and now'
Kees Blok
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Abstract
The Proyecto Capacitacion Profesional en Gestion de Recursos Hidricos para Uso Agrario (Proyecto CGRH) conducts training sessions for professionals working in irrigation management transfer programmes to help them develop facilitation skills for participatory processes. The course focuses on the knowledge and skills required for developing a facilitatory role for supporting communication with water users. Its main aim is helping participants to define and adopt certain professional attitudes required for successful facilitation.
3. Review of the Francophone exchange meeting on participatory development in Francophone Africa: results and strategies for the future
Laura Greenwood
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Abstract
The Francophone Exchange was co-organised by IIED-Senegal - Programme du Sahel and La Fondation Rurale de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (FRAO) with financial support from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) - UK. This regional meeting, held on 25-28 April 2000 in Dakar, provided the opportunity for practitioners to reflect together on the experiences and results of participatory practice to date. One of its principal aims was to try to systematise methods, share innovation and enrich documentation around the use of participatory methods in the Francophone world.
SPECIAL ISSUE:
Participatory processes in the North
4. Overview - participatory processes in the North
Charlotte Flower, Paul Mincher and Susan Rimkus
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Abstract
This article serves as a broad overview of participatory approaches and processes in the North, which is the focus of the eighteen articles that follow in this edition of PLA Notes. It begins by considering what is meant by North and South, gives a historical overview of participatory approaches to development in the North, and goes on to explore the context of the case studies that follow. It concludes with an examination of 'threats and opportunities' presented by the methodologies used.
5. Settlement planning through linking people: a participatory approach of the Kitagata project in Japan
Mitsuhiko Hosaka
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Abstract
The Kitagata Project was one of the pioneering cases of participatory settlement development in urban low-income communities in Japan. There has been notable positive change since the mid 1990s in the urban context of Japan. In recognition of this achievement, the Architectural Institute of Japan awarded a prize of honour to the City of Kitakyushu and an independent planning team, the Wakatake Planning Institute. Community workshops are increasingly held as a planning techniques, many of which can be found rooted in the Kitagata project. This paper briefly introduces the background, processes and methods of community participation in Kitagata.
6. Urban youth as community planners and leaders: exploring their potential with urban community action planning for teenagers (UCAPT)
Laurie Ross and Mardi Coleman
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Abstract
In Worcester, Massachusetts, USA, a growing number of teenagers are challenging the public's negative portrayal of urban youth by become active neighbourhood participants and decision-makers. Urban Community Action Planning for Teenagers (UCAPT), an urban, northern adaptation of participatory rural appraisal (PRA) and participatory action research (PAR), provides low-income teenagers with neighbourhood problem-solving and planning skills.
7. Consultation or active participation? using the right tools to involve local people.
Kate Gant
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Abstract
The author was recently asked to be part of a team of people involved in developing Walsall's application for New Deal for Communities, a Government Regeneration initiative which would bring millions of pounds of new investment to Blakenall. This is one of the most deprived areas of Walsall, a town located 6 miles north of Birmingham in the UK. As a community arts worker, her remit was to develop innovative ways of consulting with local people to involve them in defining a natural community and to identify key issues. The Blakenall project led her to not only review her approach, but also the tools she used.
8. PLA as a tool in participant process-orientated evaluation in the field of drug prevention psychiatry in Norway
Nina Foss and Liv Aune
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Abstract
The Oeksnes area, which has a population of 2500, is located in the coastal region of Vesteraalen in northern Norway. According to surveys, problems with drugs and alcohol are increasing in the region. There is also a group of approximately 15 persons categorised as having severe drug/psychiatric problems in the community. A project in Oeksnes, funded by the national Department of Health and started in 1996, was aimed specifically at reaching out to people with combined drug/psychiatric problems, in particular at creating participation and empowerment among the users, and creating more flexibility and co-operation with the health/social services.
9. The use of the qualitative research methodology tool 'Participatory Appraisal' with mental health service users, as a method of consultation and community capacity building
Jeanne Nicholls and Katie Watson
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Abstract
This paper explores the choice, methodology and appropriateness of Participatory Appraisal (PA) as an accessible method of community consultation with mental health service users and carers, i.e. local residents who either use or care for people who use the mental health services in the Borough of Walsall, UK. Training in PA was offered and delivered to service users in order for them to facilitate community consultation at a specific event, aimed at exploring key issues of concern to inform the revision of the Mental Health Strategy in the borough. The authors outline the key components for success, their findings and the outcomes as well as highlighting significant elements that need to be taken into account when such a process is used with services users and carers.
10. W.A.L.K.W.A.Y.S. (Walsall Youth Projects): using participatory appraisal as a means to assist person-centred planning in the lives of young drug users
Daren Garratt and Caroline Stokes
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Abstract
Participatory Appraisal techniques have been found to be invaluable in the authors' work to deliver interventions and support to drug users in schools, be it informally on the streets, or in more on-going, intensive one-to-one relationships with clients. In this article the authors seek to demonstrate not only the flexibility and versatility of PA as a research technique within communities, but also as a 'therapeutic' tool for supporting young people with problems.
11. East End health action participatory appraisal for East End health strategy
Christine Caldwell
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Abstract
East End Health Action (EEHA), a local community Health Project in Glasgow, Scotland, has a reputation for operating within the principles and practice of community development and health. The Project was approached by the East End Social Inclusion partnership Health Strategy sub-group to identify possible means of developing the East End Health Strategy. In similar work in 1996, EEHA had used participatory methodologies based on a Vision Workshop and Stakeholder Analysis. In order to avoid being repetitive in its approach, EEHA began to investigate a technique known as Participatory Appraisal.
12. The most significant change approach for monitoring an Australian extension project
Jessica Dart,Geoff Dysdale, David Cole and Mark Saddington,
Abstract
The Most Significant Change (MSC) approach is a participatory process involving the collection of stories of change, emanating from the field level, and the systematic selection of the most significant of these stories by project steering committees. This article describes the MSC approach and highlights some experiences gained during a 12-month trial with the Target 10 Dairy Extension Project in Australia. It is suggested that this approach constitutes an appropriate and credible process for monitoring change, helps to promote organisational learning, and can be inspiring for those involved.
13. Articulating the rural voice - a case study from Northern Ireland
Gareth Harper
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Abstract
The Rural Community Network (RCN) is an independent, voluntary organisation for rural communities in Northern Ireland. An integral part of the work of RCN is its involvement in organising and facilitating consultation exercises with rural communities across Northern Ireland. A clear message emanating from the most recent exercises is the consultation overload and decreasing interest experienced by many groups around the 'more of the same' consultation exercises. In an effort to counter this, and to ensure that the voice of rural communities is adequately heard in the change process, RCN embarked upon a six-month feasibility study which examined the potential use and benefits of participatory research techniques to policy change and conflict resolution.
14. Participatory planning in Northern Ireland: the 'learning community' approach
Rachel Naylor, Nick Mack and Lesley Baillie
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Abstract
Northern Ireland is a society deeply divided along politico-religious lines. It has seen very little participatory planning. This article introduces an approach towards enabling citizenship called the 'learning community' in Northern Ireland. It describes the new tools used to facilitate participation and learning, including the 'local website'. It discusses what has been learned from the experience of piloting the approach in rural County Down (a region in Northern Ireland).
15. Community documentaries and participatory video
Al Garthwaite
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Abstract
Vera Media is a video production and training partnership set up in 1985 in Leeds, Yorkshire, in the North of England. It now produces a wide range of commissioned documentary and drama productions, mainly for education, arts, public and voluntary sector organisations. It also produces an increasing number of participatory, or community, video documentaries and it is this participatory video work that is presented in this article.
16. Sowing seeds of sustainability with Duthchas
Sine Gillespie, MegTelfer and Vanessa Halhead
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Abstract
The Duthchas Project was set up in 1998 by a partnership of public agencies, to address issues of sustainable development in some of the most remote and fragile communities of the Scottish Highlands and Islands on the north west periphery of Great Britain. The aim of the Project is to develop local strategies and actions for sustainable development, based on the collective knowledge of the local people and the public agencies, and this information/involvement is generated through the use of participatory methods. This article provides an account of the first part of the Duthchas project as facilitated and experienced by the local project workers.
17. Farmer-centred extension education: the educational venue of pasture walks in Wisconsin USA and the role of the facilitator
Lynn Chakoian
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Abstract
In this era of qualitative research, the author has observed that farmers change their management based on the discussions that take place on pasture walks. Such discussions typically cover topics from grazing patterns, to field size, to availability of water, to cow health, to supplemental feeding and so on, all triggered by the fact that the group of farmers and other professionals are walking the fields and talking about what is happening. This type of education of farmers could be applied to many areas of agriculture in the North or South.
18. REFLECT in Canada: Pebbles in the Sand
Desiree Lopez
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Abstract
'Pebbles in the Sand' is an English as a Second Language (ESL) Literacy programme that was initiated by the Calgary Immigrant Women's Association (CIWA) in July 1999. The President of CIWA's Board of Directors (1999-2000) brought the REFLECT Mother Manual into the agency in order to examine the potential effect the REFLECT methodology could have on addressing the needs of multi-barriered learners. The REFLECT Mother Manual was developed by ActionAid UK in order to increase the literacy and empowerment skills of men and women facing disparity.
19. 'Naming the moment'. A participatory process of political analysis for action
Chris Cavanagh
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Abstract
'Naming the Moment' is a participatory method of identifying and analysing issues in order to decide how to act on them. It has been applied and met with success in Toronto, Canada. Essential to Naming the Moment is a democratic self-reflective and critically creative process that results in constant adaptation and change. It advocates and necessitates alliances across many sectors (from labour to community to academia) and between different social movements. It is a multi-cropping practice of story-sharing, skills building and democratic dialogue that is simultaneously theory and practice.
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Abstract
'Imagine' is a PLA approach to development, based on 'appreciative inquiry'. It has three stages: understand - choose questions that draw out the best of the past; imagine - use the best of the past to imagine what might be; and co-create - form partnerships between organisations and individuals to take projects forward.What happens in practice is that Imagine starts with a group developing appreciative questions. Next , they use those questions to talk to a wider group. Then they develop their answers into 'provocative propositions' - challenging statements about how the future should be.
21. Worker-led participatory research and evaluation: lessons from the real world. Reflections of the SREPP participants
Anne K. Eckman, Tom McQuiston and Tobi MaeLippin
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Abstract
In 1997, four US union health and safety training programmes entered into a three-year, multi-union learning-action-research collaborative, the Self-sufficiency Research and Evaluation Pilot Project (SREPP). The initiative sought to build the research and evaluation capacities of the participating unions' hazardous materials trainings, funded by the US National Institute of Environmental Health Services. During the last of SREPP's four training workshops, participants reflected on their experiences in the project through a series of participatory activities.
22. A seven year northern training journey
Andy Inglis
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Abstract
Seven years ago, the author started a 'northern' training journey which started in Canada. So far he has designed and facilitated over 40 Participatory Appraisal (PA) training workshops and managed and facilitated over 100 on the ground PA events in the 'North'. This article is a reflective summary of his training journey: where he was in the mid-1990s, where he is now, and where he would like to go in the future.
Using participatory research techniques to investigate local notions of malaria in a Nigerian community – focus on field-workers’ conduct and behaviour
C. O. Izugbara with a response from Somesh Kumar
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Abstract
Through a study of local knowledge of malaria among the Ngwa of south-eastern Nigeria, useful insights are emerging about the critical implications of the conduct and behaviour of fieldworkers with regards to the quality of information and data gathered in a participatory study. This article describes some of these insights and comes to the conclusion that practitioners of participatory research methods must conduct themselves in culturally responsive ways if they are to successfully generate information and also grasp where and how the information fits into the entire process of sustainable development.
Tips for Trainer:
Team formation:poker style
Coupal, Francoise
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Abstract
This exercise is used to form teams based on criteria set by participants. It has been used particularly in PRA/PLA workshops which involve practical three-day community assignments that enable participants to apply the PRA/PLA tools learned in the workshop. The exercise is very efficient and effective in forming teams and ensures that teams contain a balance in terms of gender, skills and experience.