Knowledge Democracy
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Item Land and people No. 3, July-September 1988(Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 1988-09) Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA)This report covers the third issue of Land and People, a PRIA newsletter on land ownership and alienation, published between July and September 1988. It opens with the Supreme Court's August 1988 ruling ordering the closure of limestone mines in the Doon Valley after nearly three decades of local resistance. It examines India's National Water Policy, questioning whether its emphasis on river-basin planning and large-scale groundwater recharge benefits marginal farmers or reinforces their exclusion. The focus article revisits land reform four decades after independence, highlighting the gap between legal provisions and the land held by small and tenant farmers. A review of Vijay Paranjpye's study of the Tehri Dam questions official estimates of economic returns, displacement, and ecological risks. It also reports on protests against the Narmada Valley Project in Bombay, a fast at the Sardar Sarovar dam site, and a march in North Bihar over recurring floods and drinking water scarcity. It concludes with a letter from Thailand's Project for Ecological Recovery on the shelving of the Nam Choan dam following sustained cross-border solidarity, and a report on the first International Rivers Network conference in San Francisco.Item Creating knowledge: A monopoly? Participatory research in development(Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 1982-06) Hall, Budd L; Gillete, Arthur; Tandon, RajeshThis book is about participatory research as a political process bound up with questions of power and knowledge production, rather than merely a set of methods. It opens with the Jamaican Drama for Progress literacy project, where a shift from delivering pre-written messages to villagers toward enabling them to write and perform their own material captures the move from research done on people to research done with them. Drawing on the Latin American tradition of investigación acción and Paulo Freire's thematic investigation, the collection questions who is authorised to produce knowledge about poverty and underdevelopment. Five theoretical essays address participation, power and alternative methods, followed by seven case studies from Indonesia, Senegal, Tanzania, England, Chile, Canada and India, and a concluding section of critical reactions. Rather than success stories, what emerges are unresolved questions about initiating participatory work, sustaining ties with political organisations, and balancing theory with praxis in research committed to social transformation.Item The democratization of the production of knowledge(1988-05-03) Hall, Budd LDr. Budd L. Hall delivered the opening address at a participatory research workshop held at the University of Calgary in May 1988. In this address, he reflects on his journey in participatory research, beginning with his work in Tanzania in the early 1970s, where he met Paulo Freire, to his role in founding the International Participatory Research Network in 1977. By the time of the address, he headed the International Council for Adult Education. . Participatory research is framed through three connected dimensions: a theoretical grounding aimed at building popular hegemony rather than serving ruling classes, an epistemological understanding of knowledge formed through the interaction of research, education and action, and a political practice built on working directly with communities. Feminist, Indigenous, and worker perspectives run through the address, including a Montreal poultry workers' union that studied its own workplace health conditions instead of relying on outside experts, illustrating that there are many ways of knowing beyond formal Western science. John Gaventa's observation appears too that social movements often falter either by rejecting research altogether or by depending too heavily on outside experts. A six-step method developed by Joao Francisco de Souza runs from context and justification through to the collectivization of the knowledge produced. Participatory research is presented, in the end, as a difficult but necessary strategy within the larger struggle over who controls knowledge and powerItem “I AM NOT A PEACENIK”: Adult learning of development education in English-speaking Canada(Canadian and International Education, 1983) Hall, Budd LWhat can development education look like in a changing world order? In this article, Dr. Budd Hall reflects on the meaning of development education and the approaches of adult learning within it. Drawing on thinkers such as Freire, Tawney, Marx and others, he examines their fundamental principles and approaches to education, and considers how adult learning can be understood through their perspectives. He foregrounds the persistent and difficult questions that confront development educators across the world, particularly those related to power, positionality, access, influence and reflexivity. Through examples ranging from Gatt Fly in Canada to educators in Tanzania, he traces common threads across varied experiences. Reflecting on his own work, the experiences of other educators, and major intellectual traditions, Hall reflects upon how development education must respond to the challenges of a changing world order. He also emphasises the interdependence of countries and argues that development education must fundamentally recognise and engage with this reality. Situated in the 1980s, the article offers a critical reflection on the direction and responsibilities of development education.Item Education for all as determined by the few?(Society for Participatory Research in Asia, 1989-12) Tandon, RajeshItem Participatory evaluation: Issues and concerns(Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 1989) Choudhary, Anil; Tandan, RajeshEvaluation has become a commonplace word and practice in development programmes throughout the world. Not only are programmes, plans and activities being designed and implemented to promote development in education, health, agriculture, etc. but they are also being evaluated regularly and frequently. There has also evolved, over the last couple of decades, specialized expertise, institutions and a body of knowledge in support of evaluation. However, much of this evaluation practice and theory continues to be utilized in a manner that is very similar to top-down models of development, which are currently being replaced by bottom-up strategies. In the course of our work with grass-roots organizations and non-governmental initiatives in India, and other countries of Asia, we have evolved, through our own practice, some ideas, principles and theory about Participatory Evaluation. We evolved these principles not only based on the critique of traditional evaluation approach but also based on what seemed relevant and appropriate in a given concrete situation. In our interactions with other practitioners, we have found multiple and varied meanings being given to the concept of Participatory Evaluation. For some, Participatory Evaluation implies the process of action-reflection-action. In the process of conscientizing and organizing the poor, several grass-roots activists and organizations have evolved a methodology of action-reflection-action. It is this process which is equated with the meaning of Participatory Evaluation by some. On the other hand, we have been calling our involvement in facilitating evaluation and analysis of a programme, an organization or a perspective as Participatory Evaluation.Item Participatory research and participatory social action(1980-04-13) Tandon, RajeshItem Participatory research-Popular knowledge and power(1984-09) Hall, Budd LItem Participatory Evaluation and Research: Main Concepts and Issues(Indian Social Institute, 1981) Tandon, RajeshFrom the days in the 1930s when the University of Bombay first introduced a post-graduate course in sociology, to our days, there has been a gradual change to the professionalization of the social sciences. With professionalization came specialisation and its acceptance as a science that can be considered objective by creating a distance between the researcher and the 'object' of study i.e., the people studied—actors in the social setting.Item Knowledge as power: Participatory research as alternative(Indian Social Institute, 1985) Tandon, RajeshThis paper by Dr. Rajesh Tandon revolves around the concept of knowledge as a source of power and how participatory research has emerged as a solution against the monopoly of knowledge. The article argues that a major, yet subtle source of exploitation of people has emerged since World War II, through control exercised using knowledge. It explains how the professionalization of knowledge production has devalued ancient, popular knowledge and denied ordinary people access to professionally produced knowledge, leading the weaker sections of society to become even weaker. The article further presents participatory research as an alternative to help the weaker sections engage in knowledge production and its utilisation. A few key elements of participatory research it expands on are- recognizing and valuing existing popular knowledge, building new knowledge from authentic elements of existing knowledge, enabling ordinary people to exercise control of knowledge production and dissemination- promoting collective analysis and responsibility. This creates informed opinions, and enables concrete actions to transform the situation of the have-nots. The article concludes by providing examples of local organisations in India that have undertaken this process and emphasizes the need to promote popular knowledge and research that can function as a tool of collective action in favour of the minority.