StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Unpacking Participation - Models, Meanings and Practices - Literature review Example

Cite this document
Summary
The article "Unpacking Participation - Models, Meanings and Practices" explores some of the meanings and practices involved in participation and also the relevance of theory to practice. Cornwall introduces Arnstein’s (1969), Pretty’s (1995), and White’s (1996) typologies of participation…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER93.3% of users find it useful
Unpacking Participation - Models, Meanings and Practices
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Unpacking Participation - Models, Meanings and Practices"

Sociology: Article Review This review critically evaluates the article “Unpacking 'Participation': models, meanings and practices in Community Development Journal”, 269 – 283, by Cornwall, A.. The review will first summarize the article, then analyse its effectiveness in the presentation of facts, its reliability and accessibility and lastly, it will critique the presentation of this article. This article was well written, coherent, clear and with a lot of relevance to the community development practices today. Article summary The main purpose of this article was to explore some of the meanings and practices involved in participation and also the relevance of theory to practice. Cornwall introduces us to the first section of this article by presenting different typologies of participation. The typologies presented here give different perspectives into the extent and the types of participations involved in community development projects. They focus of the approach and the intentions of the person initiating the participation. Cornwall presents three typologies in this article; Arnstein’s (1969), Pretty’s (1995) and White’s (1996) typology of participation. Arnstein’s (1969) ladder of participation is the common form of participation which focuses centrally on the citizen control where the citizens are at the receiving end. Pretty’s (1995) typology of participation is characterized by a wide range of participation approaches varying from manipulative, passive participation to functional participation. This typology is commonly manifested in development participation (Rudqvist and Woodford-Berger, 1996). White’s participation typology departs from the earlier two as it is concerned with issues of different interests at stake in various forms of participation. It offers insights as to the conflicts in ideas which arise from issues of why or how participation is being used at any particular stage in a process. The second point addressed by Cornwall is the participation in practice. This article notes that all the typologies discussed can be used indistinctively, with a very blurred boundary, in the same project. The article presents the merits and demerits of engaging in public participation in development projects. Participation can be responsible for sparking popular engagement on issues affecting their lives by giving the participants a voice and a platform for airing their grievances (Cornwall, 272). On the other hand, the intended beneficiaries may choose not to participate in the course intended for their own benefits. Cornwall also addresses the issue of power and influence as a result of participation. Having a voice needs to be nurtured and the participation platform can be an initiator of providing a space for people to speak their mind. Influence is achievable when one can capture the voice of the large population. This article also notes that different levels of participation will require different levels of engagements and different types of participants. Effectiveness This section presents the strengths of this article in the presentation of its facts and illustrations of evidence. The strength of this article is manifested from its content to its structure. Cornwall introduces this article with an abstract which offers the reader a stance which has been established in the article and also provides the reader with a general outline of the main ideas. The main ideas presented in the article are backed by solid example and illustration which makes the points comprehensible. For instance; Cornwall gives a relevant example of participation and influence from rural Kenya. The consistence of his arguments are also reinforced by those of Robert Chambers’ observations from 1974 who holds that participation can only become a privilege if theory can be translated into practice. This article has successfully linked theory into practice. The author starts this article with the presentation of the normalcy involved in theory of different typologies. This has been effectively presented by a wide range of participation by using relevant concepts of typologies. The different types of typologies present different levels of participation. The typologies have been presented in tables to enhance the reader’s understanding and give instant insights of the points presented therein in short, precise and clear illustrations. This has been a major strength in this article. He describes the different typologies with their rules and what they entail in general. He departs from this general view to give the reader the practical perspectives of the typologies and their manifestation on the ground. This is seen when he presents the different participation typologies in different places as seen in Cohen and Uphoff (1980, p. 222). The structure of the article was logically set out with subheadings to indicate the transition into specifics. The author used short paragraphs to present individual ideas and alternation of short and long sentences in the paragraphs. The use of subheadings enables the reader to effectively scan through the article in search for specific information. This set out an interesting ambience to motivate the readers of this article. There are also several in-text citations which indicates the author used and clearly referenced all the materials used in compiling this article. Evaluation This section of the review examines the weaknesses observed in this article. First, the article on the participation by the public in development has been based on the assumption that all the people are invited to participate. This assumption can be linked to Hart’s Ladder of Participation where the human rights require that all people should be involved. This assumption has prevailed throughout this article as the author does not address the invitation process but he addresses the issue of non-exclusion where many of the included participants are the elite, rich, and older members of the community (Cornwall, 275). The assumption may not hold reasonable ground to judge participation in development programmes of different individuals as it depends on whether or not they have been invited to participate. This is important especially due to overpopulation where adequate notice of invitation has to be made in different public fora. The second weakness of this article is in the lack of a conclusion. A conclusion is very important for a reader to engage with the deductions and summary points of the author. The conclusion is also used to present recommendations for future research in this field. The exclusion of the conclusion omits a vital part which prevents the reader from learning the author’s opinion as to which part of this field requires more search in the future. The author has, in several instances been very technical and wordy in his writing style which poses difficulties to the understanding of the average reader. A technical construction can frustrate a reader’s attempt to read and comprehend an article. For instance, the author states; “Participation as praxis is, after all, rarely a seamless process; rather, it constitutes a terrain of contestation, in which relations of power between different actors, each with their own ‘projects’, shape and reshape the boundaries of action.” This sentence is overly wordy and long which complicates the understanding of an average reader. There is need for plain English to improve comprehension of the article. Despite the presented shortcomings of the article, the author has been very successful in presenting this article. Bibliography Arnstein, S., 1969. A ladder of citizen participation, AIP Journal, July, 216–214. Cohen, J. & Uphoff, N., 1980. Participation’s place in rural development: seeking clarity through specificity, World Development, 8: 213–235. Cornwall, A., 1998. In my own back yard: participatory wellbeing assessment in suburban Britain, Social Change, 28: 17–40. Cornwall, A., 2000. Beneficiary, Consumer, Citizen: Perspectives on Participation for Poverty Reduction, Sida Studies 2, Stockholm, Sweden. Cornwall, A. & Coelho, V. S., 2006. Spaces for Change? The Politics of Citizen Participation in New Democratic Arenas, London: Zed. Pretty, J., 1995. Participatory learning for sustainable agriculture, World Development, 23 (8), 1247–1263. Rudqvist, A. & Woodford-Berger, P., 1996. Evaluation and Participation: Some Lessons, Department for Evaluation and Internal Audit, DAC Expert Group on Aid Evaluation, Sida, Stockholm. White, Sarah C., 1996. Depoliticising development: the uses and abuses of participation, Development in Practice, 6 (1), 6–15. Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Article Review: Cornwall, A. (2008) Unpacking 'Participation': models, Literature review”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/sociology/1635035-article-review-cornwall-a-2008-unpacking-participation-models-meanings-and-practices-in-community-development-journal-269-283-june-2008
(Article Review: Cornwall, A. (2008) Unpacking 'Participation': Models, Literature Review)
https://studentshare.org/sociology/1635035-article-review-cornwall-a-2008-unpacking-participation-models-meanings-and-practices-in-community-development-journal-269-283-june-2008.
“Article Review: Cornwall, A. (2008) Unpacking 'Participation': Models, Literature Review”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/sociology/1635035-article-review-cornwall-a-2008-unpacking-participation-models-meanings-and-practices-in-community-development-journal-269-283-june-2008.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Unpacking Participation - Models, Meanings and Practices

The Theory of Constructivism

The paper "The Theory of Constructivism" describes that the implications of instructional learning for the modern classroom are that teachers are able to engage students through the use of interactive technologies.... There are a couple of suggestions for teachers under this model.... ... ... ... Students learned to solve data-flow isomorphs of the standard algebra problems....
31 Pages (7750 words) Assignment

The Beattie Model of Health

This model supports the fact that health promotion is founded on various social and cultural practices (Wills and Earle, 2007).... hese approaches have a different conceptualisation of health promotion, with one side being focused on personal behaviour and the other side highlighting the importance of community participation....
18 Pages (4500 words) Essay

Assessing Media Influence

This is because a phenomenon unfolded in a television show could not be understood in itself but about how the meanings interacted and impacted towers or readers (Berger, 2005, pp.... This is also about responsible media consumption by unmasking the paradigmatic and syntagmatic meanings evoked differently (Berger, 2005, pp....
7 Pages (1750 words) Essay

Self-Designed Coaching Course of Independent Training for Industrial Supervision

Under respected models of human behavior, in order to gain meaningful commitment from stakeholders, managers must establish a priority sense of social belonging and enhance self-esteem development in order to gain inherent desire to achieve the maximum of individual performance (Maslow 1998; Morris and Maisto 2005)....
15 Pages (3750 words) Research Paper

Management Potential and Organisational Performance

Real examples of best practices are also provided through four cases.... raddick10 would call coaching one of the many practices that can reasonably be linked to high-performing companies in terms of raising standards.... Common tools, models, and techniques used in coaching include Kolb's learning cycle, the GROW model, 360-degree feedback, psychometric instruments, goal setting, and emotional intelligence models.... participation then in an executive coaching program would offer the rare opportunity for an executive to stand back and to take a fresh look at his experiences and assumptions of a lifetime....
11 Pages (2750 words) Essay

Frank Gehry: Deconstructivist Architecture

This work called "Frank Gehry: Deconstructivist Architecture" focuses on Frank Owen Gehry, who is known for his designs.... The author outlines design as a product and as a process, shows strong deconstructivist principles.... ... .... ... ... Regarding Gehry's architectural philosophy, some critics note that his early designs and concepts depict modernism because of the prevailing dominance of modernist principles taught in college and practiced in his field, but his overall philosophy later embraced post-modernist concepts, especially Deconstructivism....
19 Pages (4750 words) Coursework

Black Box between Human Resource Management and Organizational Performance

esearch has shown ample evidence of the massive connection between the performance of the organization and practices undertaken by the Human Resource team.... Therefore, the policies and practices of the human resource coupled with the strategies of a business impact the performance of the organization, and this is through the outcomes of the human resource management.... The relationship between performances of the group enables the results of the practices of the human resource....
11 Pages (2750 words) Coursework

Citizen Participation with Government in Policy Development

This research paper "Citizen participation with Government in Policy Development" presents public participation as considered as a deliberative process by which the interested citizens, the government, and civil society organizations take part in policy-making prior to making any political decision.... Public participation acknowledges the pluralism of objectives and values, which enables collaborative problem solving that, is aimed at achieving legitimate policies....
20 Pages (5000 words) Research Paper
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us