Equity, power games and legitimacy : dilemmas of participatory learning processes

Barnaud Cécile, Van Paassen Annemarie. 2010. Equity, power games and legitimacy : dilemmas of participatory learning processes. In : Building sustainable rural future : 9th European IFSA Symposium, Vienna, Austria, 4-7 July 2010. IFSA. Vienne : Universität für Bodenkultur, 106-115. European IFSA Symposium. 9, Vienne, Autriche, 4 Juillet 2010/7 Juillet 2010.

Résumé : Participatory approaches are nowadays widely used, but their designers are facing dilemmas, especially in heterogeneous social contexts. On the one hand, some of them stand accused of being naively manipulated by the most powerful local stakeholders; while on the other hand, others are accused of intervening on social systems to empower some particular stakeholders without having the legitimacy to do so. This article examines the testing of a critical companion approach which recognizes the necessity to take into account local power asymmetries to avoid the risk of increasing initial inequities. The paper draws on the experimentation and reflexive analysis of a companion modelling process conducted with such a critical approach in the highlands of Northern Thailand. The process aimed at facilitating dialogue between a national park being established and two surrounding Mien communities whose livelihoods depended on land and forest resources located inside the park. We show that local power asymmetries express themselves in participatory processes and that some of them might be obstacles to the emergence of an equitable concerted process. We also demonstrate that, through his methodological choices, the designer of a participatory process is able to overcome some of these obstacles, but to a certain extent only. Far from being neutral, the designer adopting a critical posture should attempt to make explicit all his underlying assumptions so that stakeholders can choose to accept them as legitimate or to reject them. However, this attempt faces limits in several situations, in particular with stakeholders who refuse to participate.

Classification Agris : U30 - Méthodes de recherche
E14 - Économie et politique du développement

Auteurs et affiliations

• Barnaud Cécile, CIRAD-ES-UPR GREEN (FRA)
• Van Paassen Annemarie, Wageningen University (NLD)

Source : Cirad - Agritrop (https://agritrop.cirad.fr/556208/)

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