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PLA 58 | PLA 59

Participatory Learning and Action 58

Towards empowered participation: stories and reflections

Forthcoming 2008

Guest editors: Tom Wakeford and Jasber Singh

This special issue critically reflects on those rarely-discussed elements of processes that are disempowering to those with least power. “Citizen participation” has typically elicited enthusiastic support from policy elites. However, past editions of PLA and numerous other studies have suggested that such initiatives have rarely impacted the mainstream political decision-making processes. Often referred to as “citizen engagement” or “public consultation”, these processes may in reality be little more than smokescreens behind which the systems of democratic accountability fought for by progressive social movements over many decades are allowed to decay.

The overall aim of this issue is to allow practitioners to reflect on some of these aspects of participation. By fostering a deeper understanding of participation we hope to promote improved policies and practices. We believe the articles call for an increased global solidarity among those committed to transforming the power of oppressed peoples via participation.

The issue is split into four sub-themes:

• Citizens' juries and similar participatory processes: strengths and weaknesses
• Participatory budgeting: lessons from Latin American and the UK
• Gender issues and challenges of representation

• Community activism from the grassroots

Participatory Learning and Action 59

Participatory web for development

Forthcoming December 2008
Guest editors: Jon Corbett and Holly Ashley

Technological innovation is taking place at a breathtaking pace. We are seeing the emergence of dozens of free or very low-cost interactive web applications and services that can enhance the ways we create, share and publish information, and the ways we collaborate and share resources.

The result is the equivalent of a massive software upgrade for the entire Web, what some commentators have taken to calling Web 2.0. Whereas Web 1.0 is largely static and focuses on information dissemination with the flow of content moving unilaterally from the producer to the consumer, Web 2.0 is based on user centered applications that promote communication, user empowerment, collaboration and social networking.

These developments provide us with a set of technical opportunities and challenges that we need to understand and grasp. To exploit the tools, and tap the full potential of ‘web 2.0’ applications and thinking on institutional and individual behaviours, we also need to consider how these new applications interact with the ways that individuals and institutions communicate, collaborate, and apply knowledge to development problems.

This issue of PLA will look at the participatory nature of these tools. A selection of articles focusing on this theme is being selected from papers presented at the conference ‘Web2ForDev 2007: Participatory Web for Development – Networking, collaborating and exchanging knowledge in agriculture, rural development and natural resource management,’ held in Rome, Italy, 24-27 September 2007.

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