Revolutionizing Development

by Cornwall, Andrea; Scoones, Ian

• ISBN13: 9781849713306
• ISBN10: 1849713308
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-06-27
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This book tells the story of development studies in practice over the last 50 years through the work of one remarkable individual - Robert Chambers. His work has taken him from being a colonial officer in Kenya through training and managing large rural development projects to a fundamental critique of top-down development and the championing of participatory approaches. The contributors eloquently demonstrate how he has been at the centre of major shifts in development thinking and practice over this period, popularising terms that are now at the centre of the development lexicon such as vulnerability, multi-dimensional poverty, sustainable livelihoods and "farmer first". The massive growth in participatory approaches to development, and particularly the application of participatory methods in development research and appraisal, has been core to the work of Robert Chambers. This has led to fundamental challenges to development practice, ranging from approaches to monitoring and evaluation to institutional learning and professional training. There is probably no-one who has had more influence on approaches to development in the past decades. This book offers a unique overview of these contributions in approximately thirty concise chapters from respected authors who have been intimately involved as collaborators, critics, colleagues and friends of Robert Chambers.

Author Biography

Andrsa Cornwall is Professor of Anthropology and Development in the School of Global Studies at the; University of-Sussex. She is director of the DFID-funded research programme consortium Pathways of Women's Empowerment, and works on the anthropology of democracy, gender and sexualities.

Table of Contents

Notes on Contributors	p. ix
Acknowledgements	p. xv
Acronyms and abbreviations	p. xvii
Photographs	p. xxi
Patting the Last First: Reflections on the Work of Robert Chambers	p. 1
Conceptualizing Development
Challenging Development Priorities	p. 23
Beginners in Africa: Managing Rural Development	p. 31
The Path from Managerialism to Participation: The Kenyan Special Rural Development Programme	p. 39
Foxes and Hedgehogs - and Lions: Whose Reality Prevails?	p. 45
Administration and Development	p. 53
Participation in International Aid	p. 59
Power and Participation	p. 67
Reframing Development	p. 75
Rural Development, Poverty and Livelihoods
Exploring Sustainable Livelihoods	p. 85
Putting the Vulnerable First	p. 93
Seasonality: Uncovering the Obvious and Implementing the Complex	p. 101
Refugee Studies	p. 107
Farmer First: Reversals for Agricultural Research	p. 113
Agricultural Development: Parsimonious Paradigms	p. 121
In Search of a Water Revolution: Canal Irrigation Management	p. 129
The Last Frontier: The Groundwater Revolution in South Asia	p. 135
Trees as Assets: Legacies and Lessons	p. 141
Finding a Sustainable Sanitation Solution: Scaling up Community-Led Total Sanitation	p. 149
Technology and Markets	p. 155
Methodological Innovations
Village Studies	p. 165
"Whose Knowledge Counts? Tales of an Eclectic Participatory Pluralist	p. 173
Learning to Unlearn: Creating a Virtuous Learning Cycle	p. 181
The Use of Participatory Methods to Study Natural Resources	p. 187
Participatory Numbers	p. 197
Practising Development: New Professionalism
The Personal and the Political Ramesh Singh	p. 205
Poverty Professionals and Poverty	p. 211
Changing Attitudes and Behaviour	p. 217
Networking: Building a Global Movement for PRA and other Participatory Methods	p. 225
Institutional Learning and Change	p. 233
Participation, Learning and Accountability: The Role of the Activist Academic	p. 241
Development Professionalism	p. 249
Appreciation and Reflections Robert Chambers	p. 257
Appendix: List of Robert Chambers'Publications	p. 261
References	p. 281
Index	p. 303
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