Simon, D., Bailey, K., Sitas, R., Valencia, S. & May, T. (2018). From Participation to Co-Production – Joint Research into Action. Proceedings Annual Conference of the Association of American Geograhers, New Orleans, April 2018.
Participatory development approaches have a long history in policy and implementation, and have been the subject of an extended and well-rehearsed academic literature. Whether motivated by an instrumental desire to gather more and better information to inform the design of more effective projects, or a genuine belief in the traditional and/or local knowledge of the intended beneficiaries, participation became one of many silver bullets to solve development’s problems. Yet, careful consideration of the implementation of participatory approaches has uncovered a range of critical challenges, from the identification of appropriate participants, to the most appropriate processes to ensure the right people participate, to the timing of such processes to reflect and respect the time constraints and financial stresses faced by the poor and marginalised.
