Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study focuses on the use of participatory research in community development settings. Participatory research, which is normally referred to by the abbreviation PR, is a relatively new social research methodology that arose out of a general sense of dissatisfaction with the way that traditional research was being conducted in development. Participatory research consists of a large variety of related research methodologies that emphasize participation, social learning and action. Epistemologically it is founded on the metatheories of critical theory and to a lesser extent phenomenology and feminism. It is primarily based on the idea of allowing people to participate as full researchers in their own research process so as to create knowledge about their own social reality with which they can initiate change. By creating their own social knowledge, which they use to address and change their social reality, participants become part of a continuous cycle of analysis - action - reflection. By participating as full co-researchers, participants become part of their own dialogical process of social praxis that allows them to enter into a continuous cycle of social learning, capacity building and conscientisation that gives them an increased sense of empowerment which in turn makes them able to engage in their own selfreliant sustainable development initiatives. Both community development and participatory research are grassroot level development initiatives. They both form part of the people-centered, participatory and social learning process - approaches to development. Both share a commitment to: realizing concrete and abstract goals, a social learning process, participation, empowerment, conscientisation, and sustainability. Both these development initiatives are orientated around operating in small homogenous groups as opposed to working with the whole community. In both participatory research and community development the person from outside the community who is initiating the development is required to fulfil the role of guide, advisor, advocate, enabler, and facilitator. Community development and participatory research share a similar research cycle that consists of the following stages: contact making, formal need identification, planning or analysis, implementation or action, and evaluation or reflection. Both research cycles are also committed to the same objectives namely: creating a community profile and need and problem profile, to draw up strategies to address some of the needs and problems, and to monitor and evaluate the strategies that were implemented. Both community development and participatory research therefore share a number of similarities in their objectives and goals, the most important of which is their shared commitment to development in which participation leads to an increase in social learning, capacity building and conscientisation that in tum results in participants experiencing an increased sense of empowerment which allows them to undertake their own self-reliant, sustainable development initiatives. Consequently this study concludes that participatory research is suitable for and beneficial to the practice of research in community development. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie fokus op die gebruik van deelnemende navorsing in gemeenskapsontwikkelling. Deelnemende navorsing, wat alom bekend staan as PR, is 'n relatief nuwe sosiale navorsingsmetodologie wat ontstaan het uit "n algemene gevoel van ongelukkigheid met die beoefening van tradisionele navorsing in ontwikkeling. Deelnemende navorsing bestaan uit "n wye verskeidenheid navorsingsmetodologieë wat klem lê op deelneming, sosiale leer en aksie. Epistemologies is dit gebaseer op die metateorieë van kritiese teorie en tot 'n mindere mate fenomenologie en feminisme. Dit is primêr gebaseer op die idee dat mense volledig moet deelneem as navorsers in hulle eie navorsingsproses sodat hulle, hul eie kennis kan skep van hul eie sosiale realiteit waarmee hulle dan sosiale verandering kan meebring. Deelnemers in hierdie proses word deel van "n aaneenlopende kringloop van ontleding-aksie-refleksie. Deur hulle plek vol te staan as navorsers word deelnemers deel van "n proses van eie dialogiese sosiale praxis wat hulle toelaat om deel te hê aan 'n aaneenlopende siklus van sosiale leer, kapasiteitsbou en psigologiese bewuswording wat hulle "n groter gevoel van selfbemagtiging gee wat hulle dan toelaat om hul eie selfonderhoudende ontwikkelingsinitiatiewe te loods. Beide gemeenskapsontwikkeling en deelnemende navorsing vind plaas op grondvlak. Dit vorm altwee deel van die mensegesentreerde, deelnemende en sosiale leerprosesse van ontwikkeling. Beide is gemik op die realisering van konkrete en abstrakte doelstellings, 'n sosiale leerproses, deelname, selfbemagtiging, psigologiese bewuswording, en selfonderhoud. Beide hierdie benaderings tot ontwikkeling geskied in klein homogene groepsverband. In beide deelnemende navorsing en gemeenskapsontwikkeling is dit 'n persoon van buite die gemeenskap wat die proses inisieer en "n rol speel as voog, adviseer, advokaat, daarstelIer en fasiliteerder. Gemeeskapsontwikkeling en deelnemende navorsing deel "n navorsing siklus wat bestaan uit die volgende stadiums: kontak maak, die identifisering van behoefte, beplanning of ontleding, implementering of aksie, en evaluering of samevatting. Beide hierdie ondersoeksiklusse deel die volgende doelstellings, naamlik: die opstel van 'n gemeenskapsprofiel sowel as "n behoefte en probleem profiel, die optrek van "n strategie!:! om behoeftes en probleme aan te spreek, en laastens om die strategie!:! wat geïmplementeer is te monitor en evalueer. Beide gemeenskapsontwikkeling en deelnemende navorsing deel "n verskeidenheid ooreenkomste in terme van hulle doelstellings, waarvan die mees belangrikste 'n gedeelde toewyding tot ontwikkeling is waarin deelname lei tot "n toename in sosiale leer, kapasitieitsbou en psigologiese bewuswording wat tot gevolg het dat deelnemers "n toenemende sin van hulle eie selfbemagtiging kry wat hulle toelaat om hulle eie selfonderhoudende ontwikkelingsaksies te loods. Hierdie studie kom tot die gevolgtrekking dat deelnemende navorsing geskik is en bevorderend is vir die proses van navorsing in gemeenskapsontwikkeling.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

The tendency for an increasing number of people to live, work, and play in metropolitan areas is perhaps the most distinguishing mark of the United States in the twentieth century. In 1961 the term, "Megalopolis," was used to describe the merging of thirty-one metropolitan areas into one supermetropolis extending in an unbroken urban chain from 'Boston to Washington, D. C.1 Other areas of the country, most notably around the Great Lakes and Los Angeles, also display similar tendencies. The purpose of this paper is, first, to operationally define "megalopolis" and, then to utilize this definition in determining the extent of megalopolitan development in the Dallas and Fort Worth Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSA's).

My experience as a development aid worker has brought to the fore the incongruence between the rhetoric and practice of community development in India, more so in relation to women. Historically, the practice of community development in India has also been imposed and could be considered as an 'imperialist' relic of the colonial rule. This has been traced through an extensive literature review and discourse analysis of the five year plan and other related documents. The research aimed to uncover the manner in which rural Indian women engaged with structures and processes of community development and to explore what benefits or otherwise accrued to them. It further sought to explore the reasons for the failure of a particular program as envisaged by local women. The thesis used the framework of structuration, everyday life and community development theories (Giddens, Lefevbre, de Certeau, Ife) and an ethnographic methodological approach. One rural community of 52 households, in the state of Orissa (India) was the subject of study and in-depth interviews were conducted with three key informants. Participant observation was the cornerstone of this research in order to gain an in-depth view of the everyday lives of women, with the researcher spending seven months in the community. Themes were developed around the community development program (Mahila Mandals) and the key informants were interviewed regarding the same, its formation, structure, processes, the reasons for its initial success and subsequent failure and finally women's agency in engaging with various aspects of the program. The findings showed that this program would not have developed unless it had been driven from the top; women had no say in the structures and processes, and while it was successful initially for instrumental reasons, not taking into account women's agency was the reason for its downfall. Despite these lessons, it is recognised that the practice of community development continues to remain top-down. Till date, international aid agencies, government's (national, state and local), and/or INGOs/ NGOs that determine the needs of the communities and the approaches to addressing and evaluating them. Conclusions include a policy discussion on the attempt by international agencies, especially DFID, and governments (of India and Orissa) to address gender issues in their existing and new programs taking into account women's agency as constructed in their everyday lives. There is an agreement with the international, national and local debates that gender issues have to be addressed with great urgency in view of the changing roles of women.

This study is a critical ethnography of my professional career as an educator born and raised in the Shona culture in Zimbabwe. In this metaphysical study I reconstruct a worldview that I consider to be representative of Shona customs and beliefs. Doing this project has challenged my own ethnic identity as I struggled to position myself on the emic-etic continuum. As a young educator, I believed my professional practice was rooted in the high professional ethics of "modern science." Today as I come to the end of this particular journey, I have raised more questions than answers. To what extend does "modern science" represent the worldviews of indigenous people like me? More still, to what extent does the development of knowledge and technology engage rural indigenous communities? Is it possible for rural indigenous communities to achieve sustainable development as outsiders to the "scientific" community? The questions I have raised in this study have led me to understand that the current state of "development" as a concept and discourse needs to be redefined from the perspective of ordinary rural people. Universal notions of development have failed to inform policy makers and researchers on how to solve social problems of poverty and access to basic services like clean water, food, shelter, and affordable health care and education. Globalization as the new manifestation of "modernity" is leading to increased exclusion of disadvantaged communities, mostly women and indigenous rural people, from enjoying the benefits of new knowledge and advanced technology. In this dissertation, I review the main paradigms of community development from 1884 when Africa was officially "christianized" at the Berlin Conference. The epistemology of community development gave me a unique opportunity to propose a grassroots model to community development that I refer to as the "G Community Development" theory (or simply the GCD theory). The GCD theory is grounded in the Zimbabwean context and my woridview. This theory is my tentative approach to make sense of the state of the development of indigenous communities in rural Zimbabwe. Under no circumstances do I seek to generalize the application of this theoretical artifact. / Graduation date: 2004

Thesis (PhD (Educational Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Abstract in English. Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file viewed on (February 7, 2007) Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Guo li Taiwan da xue. / Cover title. Mimeo. copy. Includes bibliographical references.