Resources

This chapter has an introduction and three papers. In the first the authors examine "organizational structure, performance and participation" in Nepal. They describe a study of forest user groups. The second paper raises questions concerning the meaning of "community", "local" and "indigenous" by reviewing the history of local forest management in a region of the Himalayas. It is the presence of a local guard to monitor harvest behaviour that is the most important institutional variable affecting performance. The thrid paper, "Diversity in Forms of Participation" makes a similar point based on irrigation system experience from India, the Philippines and Indonesia. The author urges researchers and policy makers to pay more attention to the norms and customs of farmers.

This article discusses the analytical process of qualitative research, particularly those of a participatory nature. It draws on experiences in Tombos (Minas Gerais, Brazil), where a PRA process was the foundation for elaborating a Municipal Rural Development Plan. A process of 'construction - deconstruction - reconstruction' was used, proving both effective and efficient. First, a synthesis was constructed by some researchers. Then, a Committee with community representatives deconstructed the synthesis through problem analysis. Finally, synthesis and analysis reconstructed the information around strategic issues. This process helped create an analysed consensus, from which action proposals were elaborated.

Report of an action research project that aimed to disseminate information on Panchayat Raj Institutions (or structures and institutions of local governance) to the rural population through the radio in Mysore, India. The authors point out that though the state of Karnataka is involved in decentralisation with statutes in place and processes to facilitate local participation in governance, there are still formidable barriers. The report gives an account of the project, assesses its impact and outlines some useful strategies for those interested in using communication creatively to promote grassroots participation in governance.

This report documents a Community Mapping project that was carried out in estates in Brighton, Coventry and Leicester in the UK. The project was co-ordinated by Sustain: The Alliance for Better Food and Farming, in partnership with Oxfam's UK Poverty Programme, and Development Focus. This report summarises the process, findings and outcomes of the Community Management project. Participatory appraisal methods were used in the process, to generate a clearer understanding of how food poverty affects people in different ways, and for different reasons; these methods and findings are elaborated on in the document. The methods also shed light on what could be done, and by whom, to solve problems with food in the community. Accordingly, recommendations for particular policy areas are made.

This article provides a step-by-step guide to mapping as a political tool, allowing local people's participation in arenas dominated by the maps of governments and corporations. It stresses the need to turn authority and decision-making over to the community so that they can direct the map-making process and the map's use. The eight steps identified are initiation and strategic planning, data needs identification and choice of technologies, training, data collection, data review, final data compilation, map production and map use.

While the rational allocation of educational facilities may help bridge the gap of physical distances between learners and the school, it may still leave out a large number of children from the purview of primary education. This is the case with respect to Rajasthan, India - the barrier is not one of physical distance, but of social, economic and cultural blocks. Thus, if bringing all children to school and ensuring that they complete the whole cycle of primary education is the objective, merely preparing distance matrices through school-mapping exercises will not solve the problem. School-mapping is a set of techniques and procedures used to plan the demand for school places at the local level and to decide the location of future schools and the means to be allocated at the institutional level. Lok Jumbish - 'the People's Movement', launched in 1989 to mobilise support and participation at the grassroots, of the rural community in primary education programmes - attempts an elaboration of school-mapping to base both diagnosis and decision-making on local community parameters, in addition to distance and economic rationale. The approach used pays particular attention to mobilising demand; it specifically emphasises the need to articulate formal and non-formal education to satisfy specific demands. The basic principle defining the approach relies on genuine participation at the local level and empowerment of the members of the community. The book examines this broadened approach to school-mapping, as adopted under Lok Jumbish. It looks particularly at the process of preparing the school map and the role the community plays in it. The first chapter introduces the study and specifies the methodological details. The next chapter is a conceptual analysis of the framework of school-mapping in Lok Jumbish. The following three chapters contain empirical data and their interpretation on the three major dimensions of school-mapping: school-mapping processes, community participation and the changing scenario of primary education. The last chapter presents a summary of the entire study, highlighting some major findings and conclusions.