Magister Philosophiae (Land and Agrarian Studies) - MPhil(LAS) / The thesis seeks to investigate the extent to which the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme (CRDP) has succeeded in creating a platform for rural people, including marginalised groups, to be effectively involved in their development. Dysselsdorp was used as a case study in a qualitative approach in order to get an understanding of the experience, views and perceptions of stakeholders, particularly residents and government officials. Data was collected through qualitative research. In-depth interviews were held with relevant government officials, local leaders and ordinary residents and focus groups were held with residents, including local leaders. The research revealed that the involvement of residents in CRDP was limited to needs identification through information giving while needs prioritisation and decisions on implementation were done by government officials. Further, the research suggests that members of the local elite (those who had political connections and social status) captured most of the benefits (i.e. tenders and jobs). Therefore, CRDP in Dysselsdorp had failed to ensure that residents, especially the marginalised, participate fully in their own development. Instead, the status quo remains, where government officials and the elites as representatives of the people make decisions. This corresponds with mere tokenism, as illustrated in Arnstein’s Ladder of Participation Model. A number of factors contributed to the failure to ensure genuine stakeholder participation, including unrealistic expectations of job creation, the assumption of ‘collectivism’, political dynamics in the area and poor institutional design.

State processes and programs are often constructed and implemented with the intention to ameliorate the lives of the inhabitants living within those borders. However, in order for citizens to benefit from these programs and processes, for example, anti-poverty programs and decentralization projects, their participation is a necessity. But societal contexts in which citizen participation occurs vary to great extents. It is important then to investigate these differences so as to further our understanding of the workings of participation. This research conducts a comparative analysis between two states in India, Kerala and Bihar, of contextual factors impacting participation. It shows that both trust in the state as well as formal education affect the level of participation of the population. This research engages with and attempts to add to the literature of participatory development by analyzing and explaining some of the impact that context has on participation of inhabitants.

Farmworker ministries provide essential goods and services as well as spiritual support to migrant farmworkers living abroad. While faith-based organizations and/or ministries are key to supporting migrant and/or refugee populations in the U.S., scholars have conducted little research on these institutions, especially those that seek to encourage the agency of those they serve. To address this gap, this study investigated a political capacity-building project conducted by the Valley View Farmworker Ministry in the summers of 2015 and 2016. That initiative sought to increase engagement and leadership of the workers that Valley View serves, to increase the Board of Directors (BOD) understanding of the farmworkers' lives, and to enhance farmworker influence on that Board's activities and decisions. The author undertook five months of fieldwork with Valley View in 2016 that included review of key documents, and completion of twenty-three interviews with a sample of farmworkers, Board of Directors, and employees. The study utilized an intersectional, participatory (Fraser, 2009) theoretical framework to analyze the justice implications of the Ministry's efforts to address the political, cultural, and economic disparities among the project's participants. The results contribute to studies on community-based research with migrant farmworkers, theoretical discussions of participatory development, and analyses of the enduring power of the agrarian imaginary, the image of the small-scale, white, male grower, to thwart such initiatives. It also builds on arguments regarding how to increase participation of farmworkers in the alternative agri-food and sustainable agriculture movements. This analysis concludes by exploring the social tensions often associated with participatory development and offering recommendations for increasing worker engagement and leadership in farmworker ministries and for confronting the agrarian imaginary. / Ph. D.

This thesis explores the potential and practicality of incorporating multi-stakeholder participation into the legal and institutional frameworks for managing Nigeria’s oil and gas. Despite the natural resource wealth embedded in the Niger Delta, her people suffer greatly from social, economic and infrastructural underdevelopment and this thesis argues that failure to respect the right of the Niger Delta communities to participate in Nigeria’s oil and gas management and in developmental projects that affect their lives is the foundation of the resource curse besetting the region. As a solution to the resource curse problem of the Niger Delta and in response to the incessant conflicts, environmental degradation, social, economic and infrastructural underdevelopment and military injustice perpetrated in the region, this thesis promotes the enforcement of the right to participation of the Niger Delta peoples through the incorporation of the United Nations promoted Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue Approach (MSDA) and this argument is based on the Participatory Development Theory (PDT). The thesis proposes legal and institutional frameworks to ensure the effective incorporation of the MSDA into Nigeria’s oil and gas regime. Other than the human rights basis for promoting the participatory development of the Niger Delta peoples, the thesis examines the business case for participatory development as an incentive to encourage oil and gas companies operating in the Niger Delta to inculcate the values of the MSDA. This thesis establishes that incorporating the MSDA into Nigeria’s oil and gas legal and institutional regime in furtherance of the participatory development of the Niger Delta communities will promote environmental sustainability, peaceful coexistence, better informed decision making processes and economic and social sustainability among others. Though there are other rights infringement issues that bear on the development of the Niger Delta communities, it is anticipated that recognition of the Niger Delta peoples as stakeholders and their effective participation in Nigeria’s oil and gas management will give them a voice and opportunity to significantly address other human rights issues and to hold other stakeholders accountable.

International Development Projects (IDP) are designed to deliver sustained solutions to human life quality threatens. They aim to improve living conditions in emerging countries through initiatives that should provide long-term sustained results. However, the extreme characteristics of IDP contexts challenge traditional project management methodologies. The dynamic nature of stakeholders’ relationships and influence adds additional pressures to the management teams. Higher levels of uncertainty in IDP are faced with non-flexible strategies that compromise the long-term desired results. Not enough participation of relevant stakeholders and beneficiaries limits the impact of development initiatives.   The authors could identify that IDP management is overall an under-investigated field. Specifically, contemporary challenges arisen from unbalanced robust/flexible strategies and low stakeholders participation have undermined the impact success of those projects. Moreover, there is no academic study that constructs on how flexibility could be enhanced in IDP, while maintaining control. Methodologies such as design thinking and agile have elucidated new paths of action for better impact and customer satisfaction in other industries, by enabling flexibility and change management. Despite their huge proven success, these methodologies are still a phenomenon limited to IT and design industries. Therefore, in IDP field there is no framework linking contingency and participatory development theories with flexible methods similar to design thinking and agile methodologies.   In order to bridge this gap the authors will embark in a qualitative study to explore literature and gain insights from actors within the IDP field about the problem at hand. A multiple embedded case study will be conducted with ID academics and practitioners at supervisory and implementation levels from across the world. A possible solution will be designed for IDP management from a different angle to that of traditional management, in order to build up flexibility without compromising project structure. The proposed framework will tackle flexibility and participation issues by integrating design thinking and agile methodologies into IDP.   The theoretical findings suggest that enabling participatory development strategies in the design phase, and expanding the available project knowledge would enhance IDP flexibility.  Likewise, IDP flexibility during the implementation phase is impacted by the quality and relevance of information and methodological tools available, stakeholders’ involvement, as well as the handover process. Therefore, since no previous studies interconnecting those theories to enhanced flexibility could be found in IDP, an expansion of available theoretical knowledge on contingency and participatory development theory in IDP is produced. The authors concluded that design thinking and agile principles may conceptually prove useful to effectively deal with the problems identified, thus project design is more adequate, and collaboration among stakeholders proves effective to deal with uncertainty and complexity. These constructs are explained in the propositions made for the SUITE framework to IDP, which aims to practically contribute to the management field of IDP.

Les recherches récentes sur le pluralisme socioéconomique et développemental dans le monde réhabilitent les intuitions de Polanyi : la révision fondamentale du sophisme économiste et l’encastrement de l’économique. Dans cette optique, la présente thèse a pour objet de penser l’articulation de trois phénomènes : le tiers secteur, le développement et la participation, à partir de l’observation des pratiques des acteurs du mouvement de solidarité associative à Beni Lubero, en RD Congo. Son approche pluridisciplinaire effectue, par une analyse beaucoup plus qualitative que quantitative, des allers et retours entre théories et faits empiriques in situ. Les deux premières parties tentent d’y identifier l’existence d’une gamme d’institutions susceptibles de compter parmi le tiers secteur compris, à l’interstice des secteurs public et privé et au creux d’autres concepts de l’économie plurielle, comme la stratégie d’auto-organisation collective, pour entreprendre ensemble et autrement ; en fonction d’un centre d’intérêts commun. La troisième partie, repensant le changement du paradigme du développement, assume celui-ci comme participatif par essence et, partant, stigmatise la pesanteur des interférences sur la conquête du concept ; et surtout en RD Congo. Elle vérifie combien, au sein de la société civile locale, le tiers-secteur de Beni Lubero est l'un des véritables leviers du processus d’auto-développement, grâce à sa multi-combativité participative. La dernière partie précise le contenu de la participation : son caractère trifacial (réfléchir, décider et agir), la nature triadique de son acte (s’associer, contribuer et bénéficier), les modes, techniques et méthodes de sa promotion ; ainsi que la transversalité de sa notion en sciences sociales et humaines. Puis, au filtre du design participatif d’Archon Fung, elle corrobore l’effectivité de la participation au sein du tiers secteur étudié. A moins de décrocher sa vigilance sur le balancier entre excellence et obstacle, la participation y paraît un tremplin à la plus-value incontestable ; notamment, en termes de membership, de leadership, d’entrepreneurship, de relationship et partnership, d’empowerment, d’ownership... / The recent research on the socioeconomic and developmental pluralism worldwide rehabilitate the insights of Polany i: fundamental review of sophistry economist (economist fallacy) and promoting the embedding of the economy. This thesis is in their view. Its purpose is to consider the linkages between three phenomena: the third sector, development and participation. To assess their articulation, it’s based on the observation of practices of the actors of various associations and solidarity movement in Beni Lubero, DR Congo. Its approach is multidisciplinary and its analysis is more qualitative than quantitative. It makes back and forth between theories and empirical facts in situ. The first two parts attempt to verify the existence of a range of institutions likely to be among third sector. The latter is then designed to the interstices of private and public socio- economic sectors; and in the hollow of the other concepts of the plural economy, such as collective self-organization strategy to undertake all together and otherwise; according to common interests. The third part rethinks the change in the development paradigm. It assumes that it’s essentially participatory. Therefore, it stigmatizes gravity of interference against the conquest of this concept, especially in DR Congo. Then, it checks how the Beni Lubero third sector, as part of the local civil society, is emerging as one of the real levers of self-development process, through its participatory multi-fighting. The final part specifies the content of participation: its triple facet (think, decide and act) and the triadic nature of its act (associate or join, contribute and benefit); methods, techniques and methods for its promotion; and the transversality of its concept through social sciences. Then, checking its practices through the participatory design of Archon Fung confirms the effectiveness of the participation in the Beni Lubero third sector. Unless failing in vigilance on the balance between excellence and obstacle, participation there seems a springboard whit a gain undeniable ; in particular, in development of membership, leadership, entrepreneurship, relationship, partnership, empowerment, ownership...

This thesis explores the potential of community video for rural development work in India. It addresses the topic via a process-oriented approach, looking into the individual steps from the creation of a video until its dissemination. Considering it as a form of storytelling, it goes beyond research projects which are finite and only focus on the final product. Storytelling in urban settings has been studied with an emphasis on the individual. Development work however goes beyond the individual, aiming for a broader influence. Thus, community video was studied in the context of developmental organizations which create films along with groups. As far as empowerment as a necessary basis for development is concerned, the study analyzes whether community video fosters or even creates the feeling of empowerment. In order to do justice to both- the medium community video and the storytelling process of it, the aspects of empowerment were examined through narrative analysis of videos and ethnographic field research combined with interviews and discussions. The connections which were discovered between narrative elements and empowerment were discussed with production teams and audiences. These discussions revealed that the communities were well aware of the power of community video and saw it as a tool for increasing knowledge within their own groups. This knowledge encompasses informational content as well as experience-sharing. It came to the fore that especially sharing has an empowering nature. The communities also see it as a mouthpiece to make the world aware of their issues and at the same time show society that they are capable of much more than what stereotypes suggest. The empowering effects of community video go beyond a simple feeling of empowerment and furthermore enable the communities to take action for their own progress. The field observations showed that with the help of organizations, the triggers for empowerment within the individual storytelling stages, from creation to dissemination, can be enhanced. Interviews with the heading organizations indicated that a balance has to be found between teaching techniques and contextual influence. This means that models for effective community video use can be useful but at the same time, the immense creative potential of the communities has be preserved. The very experience of creating something is the core of empowerment in community videos for rural Indian communities.

Although different studies have been conducted on various aspects of the National Solidarity Program (NSP) in Afghanistan, research on strengthening solidarity and social cohesion through its participatory approach has received little attention. This research used development communication as a theoretical framework to understand the role of participatory communication in strengthening solidarity and social cohesion in Afghanistan. The study employed a qualitative case study. To this end, the study used semi-structured interviews via email and telephone with 10 participants. Thematic analysis was used to code and categorize the data. The study findings show that the NSP appears to promote participation and increase collectiveness among the Afghan people, which, in turn, seem to strengthen solidarity and social cohesion. Finally, future research areas are discussed in the light of these findings.

This thesis assesses the potential of Venezuela’s technical water committees (mesas técnicas de agua, MTAs) to address governance and logistical challenges for improving sanitation in the barrios (low income settlements) of Caracas. The MTAs are a radical experiment in urban planning whereby beneficiary communities map their own water and sanitation needs and help to plan infrastructure development, which is financed by the state. In addition to improving services, the MTAs aim to promote “popular” or “citizen power” as part of a broader political transformation, the Bolivarian Process (1999-present). Based on Hickey and Mohan’s (2005) four criteria for “transformative participation,” the paper argues that the MTAs have opened spaces for citizen empowerment and improved services in the barrios; however, participation at the local scale cannot resolve many of the challenges for improving sanitation such as institutional overlap and the financing gap, especially given that sanitation is the least profitable form of service provision in terms of economic and political payoffs.

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of Geography, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p.95-104).