In Search of Professionalism, Bureaucracy and Sustainable Livelihoods for the 21st Century

Abstract

In the 21st century, vastly more people will need to gain sustainable livelihoods in difficult environments. For this, changes are needed on the part of outsiders – professionals, officials, and others – who have overlooked or underestimated the complexity and diversity of rural conditions, rural people’s ability to take a long‐term view, and their knowledge, creativity, and competence in presenting and analysing complex information. To serve poor people better, much of the challenge now is methodological: for better learning from, with, and by rural people, for enabling them to express and enhance their competence and creativity; and for the improvement and spread of new methods for changing the behaviour and attitudes of outsiders.