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.
{"title":"In Search of Professionalism, Bureaucracy and Sustainable Livelihoods for the 21st Century","authors":"Robert Robert Chambers","doi":"10.19088/1968-2023.119","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19088/1968-2023.119","url":null,"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.","PeriodicalId":47532,"journal":{"name":"Ids Bulletin-Institute of Development Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82418557","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This Archive Collection focuses on the articles contributed by Robert Chambers to the IDS Bulletin over the years, which explore various development dilemmas. In the spirit of participation, learning, and reflection (which have been such prominent features of Robert’s scholarship), it felt only right to speak to Robert himself to hear his views on some of the enduring development challenges; therefore, in December 2022 we visited our colleague and our friend. This article details an extract from our conversation.
{"title":"Looking Back to Move Development Forward – A Fireside Chat with Robert Chambers","authors":"S. Thompson, M. Cannon, Roberts Chambers","doi":"10.19088/1968-2023.116","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19088/1968-2023.116","url":null,"abstract":"This Archive Collection focuses on the articles contributed by Robert Chambers to the IDS Bulletin over the years, which explore various development dilemmas. In the spirit of participation, learning, and reflection (which have been such prominent features of Robert’s scholarship), it felt only right to speak to Robert himself to hear his views on some of the enduring development challenges; therefore, in December 2022 we visited our colleague and our friend. This article details an extract from our conversation.","PeriodicalId":47532,"journal":{"name":"Ids Bulletin-Institute of Development Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75335869","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
From our leadership positions in the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and in the Editorial Steering Group of the IDS Bulletin, it is a pleasure and a privilege to add a note of introduction to this Archive Collection focusing on one of the IDS Bulletin’s most influential and prolific contributors. Just as Robert Chambers’ work has been part of IDS’ evolving story, so has the IDS Bulletin, and it seems fitting to publish an Archive Collection that showcases and celebrates this intertwining. The Issue Editors highlight parallels between Robert’s work and the IDS Bulletin, in that both share values and legacies in championing critical thinking, bringing lesser-heard voices to the fore, and fostering ongoing learning and reflection. One might add to these parallels a commitment to ‘engaged’ research and evidence – both Robert’s work and the IDS Bulletin remain resolutely focused on mobilising knowledge to make a difference and transforming lives. Robert’s contributions to the IDS Bulletin have truly been central in shaping it, forging its values, style and reputation; one might even say that the IDS Bulletin and Robert’s work have co-developed, and have helped shape development studies.
{"title":"Robert Chambers and the IDS Bulletin – Some Reflections for Now and the Future","authors":"M. Leach, P. Taylor","doi":"10.19088/1968-2023.115","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19088/1968-2023.115","url":null,"abstract":"From our leadership positions in the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and in the Editorial Steering Group of the IDS Bulletin, it is a pleasure and a privilege to add a note of introduction to this Archive Collection focusing on one of the IDS Bulletin’s most influential and prolific contributors. Just as Robert Chambers’ work has been part of IDS’ evolving story, so has the IDS Bulletin, and it seems fitting to publish an Archive Collection that showcases and celebrates this intertwining. The Issue Editors highlight parallels between Robert’s work and the IDS Bulletin, in that both share values and legacies in championing critical thinking, bringing lesser-heard voices to the fore, and fostering ongoing learning and reflection. One might add to these parallels a commitment to ‘engaged’ research and evidence – both Robert’s work and the IDS Bulletin remain resolutely focused on mobilising knowledge to make a difference and transforming lives. Robert’s contributions to the IDS Bulletin have truly been central in shaping it, forging its values, style and reputation; one might even say that the IDS Bulletin and Robert’s work have co-developed, and have helped shape development studies.","PeriodicalId":47532,"journal":{"name":"Ids Bulletin-Institute of Development Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90597631","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Robert Chambers is one of the most influential and prolific scholars to write about participation, poverty, and knowledge in development studies. His books, chapters, and papers have revolutionised the discipline, inspiring both participatory processes and more inclusive practice. Perhaps not as well known are the articles he authored for the IDS Bulletin. This Archive Collection explores Robert’s contributions to the journal across five decades with a view to resurfacing buried gems of development studies theory and reinvigorating debates about how the sector can improve: it collates his most important articles and presents a new introduction reflecting on key ideas and offering a critical analysis of the common themes throughout Robert’s work. New perspectives discuss how theories have changed over time, and the continued relevance of key ideas. The articles reproduced here show not only how Robert’s thinking evolved but also hint at broader changes in strategic focus for the Institute of Development Studies itself, as well as development theory in general.
{"title":"Introduction: Power, Poverty, and Knowledge – Reflecting on 50 Years of Learning with Robert Chambers","authors":"Stephen Thompson, Mariah Cannon","doi":"10.19088/1968-2023.114","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19088/1968-2023.114","url":null,"abstract":"Robert Chambers is one of the most influential and prolific scholars to write about participation, poverty, and knowledge in development studies. His books, chapters, and papers have revolutionised the discipline, inspiring both participatory processes and more inclusive practice. Perhaps not as well known are the articles he authored for the IDS Bulletin. This Archive Collection explores Robert’s contributions to the journal across five decades with a view to resurfacing buried gems of development studies theory and reinvigorating debates about how the sector can improve: it collates his most important articles and presents a new introduction reflecting on key ideas and offering a critical analysis of the common themes throughout Robert’s work. New perspectives discuss how theories have changed over time, and the continued relevance of key ideas. The articles reproduced here show not only how Robert’s thinking evolved but also hint at broader changes in strategic focus for the Institute of Development Studies itself, as well as development theory in general.","PeriodicalId":47532,"journal":{"name":"Ids Bulletin-Institute of Development Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80206971","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The evolution and spread of PRA (Participatory Rural Appraisal or Participatory Reflection and Action) and CLTS (Community‐Led Total Sanitation) have involved activities of sharing and co‐generating knowledge which can loosely be considered a form of Action Learning. Key activities for this have been sequences of participatory workshops which have evolved as creative collective experiences fed by and feeding into wider networking and dissemination. These workshops have been occasions for sharing practice and collating experiences, and going beyond these to generate ideas and evolve and agree principles and good practices. Critical reflections concern power, planning and process, theory of change and impact, lessons learnt, and an ongoing learning process.
{"title":"Sharing and Co-Generating Knowledges: Reflections on Experiences with PRA and CLTS","authors":"Rober Chambers","doi":"10.19088/1968-2023.123","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19088/1968-2023.123","url":null,"abstract":"The evolution and spread of PRA (Participatory Rural Appraisal or Participatory Reflection and Action) and CLTS (Community‐Led Total Sanitation) have involved activities of sharing and co‐generating knowledge which can loosely be considered a form of Action Learning. Key activities for this have been sequences of participatory workshops which have evolved as creative collective experiences fed by and feeding into wider networking and dissemination. These workshops have been occasions for sharing practice and collating experiences, and going beyond these to generate ideas and evolve and agree principles and good practices. Critical reflections concern power, planning and process, theory of change and impact, lessons learnt, and an ongoing learning process.","PeriodicalId":47532,"journal":{"name":"Ids Bulletin-Institute of Development Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135419412","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article argues that there is nothing inherently bad about power over others – it depends on how it is used; that in many ways power over others does not have to be a zero-sum game; and that perspectives and strategies for transforming power from below, vital as they are, should not distract from the potentials for transformations from above. Power over others can be used as power to empower. This requires changes in mindsets and behaviour, with actions like convening, catalysing, facilitating, asking questions, and providing support. Through empowering others, those who are powerful can gain: from better learning and realism, reducing the distortions and delusions of ‘all power deceives’; from less stress; from better relationships; and from satisfactions which are fulfilling and enjoyable. It is overdue to pay more attention to uppers – officials, political leaders, priests, teachers, professional service providers, and pervasively to men – to enable them to gain from the win-wins of changing their behaviour, using their power to empower others. One big frontier in development thinking and practice is to evolve and apply a pedagogy for the powerful, for which five practical actions are suggested.
{"title":"Transforming Power: From Zero-Sum to Win-Win?","authors":"Robert Chambers","doi":"10.19088/1968-2023.122","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19088/1968-2023.122","url":null,"abstract":"This article argues that there is nothing inherently bad about power over others – it depends on how it is used; that in many ways power over others does not have to be a zero-sum game; and that perspectives and strategies for transforming power from below, vital as they are, should not distract from the potentials for transformations from above. Power over others can be used as power to empower. This requires changes in mindsets and behaviour, with actions like convening, catalysing, facilitating, asking questions, and providing support. Through empowering others, those who are powerful can gain: from better learning and realism, reducing the distortions and delusions of ‘all power deceives’; from less stress; from better relationships; and from satisfactions which are fulfilling and enjoyable. It is overdue to pay more attention to uppers – officials, political leaders, priests, teachers, professional service providers, and pervasively to men – to enable them to gain from the win-wins of changing their behaviour, using their power to empower others. One big frontier in development thinking and practice is to evolve and apply a pedagogy for the powerful, for which five practical actions are suggested.","PeriodicalId":47532,"journal":{"name":"Ids Bulletin-Institute of Development Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135419415","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This is the Glossary for IDS Bulletin 54.1A: Power, Poverty, and Knowledge – Reflecting on 50 Years of Learning with Robert Chambers.
这是《国际发展报告》54.1版的词汇表:权力、贫困和知识——与罗伯特·钱伯斯一起学习50年的反思。
{"title":"Glossary","authors":"Stephen Thompson, Mariah Cannon","doi":"10.19088/1968-2023.125","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19088/1968-2023.125","url":null,"abstract":"This is the Glossary for IDS Bulletin 54.1A: Power, Poverty, and Knowledge – Reflecting on 50 Years of Learning with Robert Chambers.","PeriodicalId":47532,"journal":{"name":"Ids Bulletin-Institute of Development Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135419417","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This research, which was mainly concerned with the design and testing of management procedures for use by government servants in rural areas in Kenya, was carried out during 1971–73 in collaboration with Deryke Beishaw of the Overseas Development Group of the University of Norwich. It was linked with the Kenya government's Special Rural Development Programme (SRDP), an experimental programme undertaken in six parts of Kenya with objectives which included raising rural incomes and employment opportunities and sharpening the effectiveness of the government machine in rural areas.
{"title":"Managing Rural Development","authors":"Robert Chambers","doi":"10.19088/1968-2023.117","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19088/1968-2023.117","url":null,"abstract":"This research, which was mainly concerned with the design and testing of management procedures for use by government servants in rural areas in Kenya, was carried out during 1971–73 in collaboration with Deryke Beishaw of the Overseas Development Group of the University of Norwich. It was linked with the Kenya government's Special Rural Development Programme (SRDP), an experimental programme undertaken in six parts of Kenya with objectives which included raising rural incomes and employment opportunities and sharpening the effectiveness of the government machine in rural areas.","PeriodicalId":47532,"journal":{"name":"Ids Bulletin-Institute of Development Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135419411","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
While change accelerates in rural conditions in the South, professionalism and bureaucracy are buffered against change. In their top‐down mode they produce and promote standard programmes, packages, and technologies. Rural development programmes in India for agriculture, canal irrigation, watershed development, and poverty alleviation illustrate how there is a mismatch between such standardisation and diverse needs and conditions. This mismatch is underperceived, and status at the cores is sustained, by misleading positive feedback from the peripheries. Falsely favourable impressions and information have five sources: misreporting; selected perception; misleading methods; diplomacy and prudence; and defences against dissonance. Error and myth among the development professions further aggravate the misfit between belief and reality. The costs of the resulting psychosis of the state are colossal. Therapy can be sought through policies and practices which empower poor people: reversals for local diversity; clarifying and communicating people’s rights; and personal choices by the powerful.
{"title":"The Self-Deceiving State","authors":"Robert Chambers","doi":"10.19088/1968-2023.120","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19088/1968-2023.120","url":null,"abstract":"While change accelerates in rural conditions in the South, professionalism and bureaucracy are buffered against change. In their top‐down mode they produce and promote standard programmes, packages, and technologies. Rural development programmes in India for agriculture, canal irrigation, watershed development, and poverty alleviation illustrate how there is a mismatch between such standardisation and diverse needs and conditions. This mismatch is underperceived, and status at the cores is sustained, by misleading positive feedback from the peripheries. Falsely favourable impressions and information have five sources: misreporting; selected perception; misleading methods; diplomacy and prudence; and defences against dissonance. Error and myth among the development professions further aggravate the misfit between belief and reality. The costs of the resulting psychosis of the state are colossal. Therapy can be sought through policies and practices which empower poor people: reversals for local diversity; clarifying and communicating people’s rights; and personal choices by the powerful.","PeriodicalId":47532,"journal":{"name":"Ids Bulletin-Institute of Development Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135419413","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cássio Arruda Boechat, Fábio Teixeira Pitta, Lorena Izá Pereira, Carlos de Almeida Toledo
This article explores how the agricultural frontier in Brazil is conceived and how it has been historically shaped by broader socioeconomic changes. It considers the planning process linked to the Cerrado occupation during the military dictatorship (1964–85). The article analyses understandings of the frontier that connected it to concerns about ‘demographic gaps’ and shaped an agenda of state-led ‘national integration’ that neglected local populations. This analysis is linked to recent transnational real estate activities in Matopiba to document how control over the territory persists but is now driven by different protagonists and logics. We document how Brazilian agribusinesses, in association with transnational capital, have created transnational agricultural real estate companies and acquired land in frontier areas such as Matopiba. Although the violence of expropriation and deforestation persists, there are new financial mechanisms that condition the agricultural frontier and exert control over territory, quite unlike previous forms of state-led occupation.
{"title":"Transformations of the Agricultural Frontier in Matopiba: From State Planning to the Financialisation of Land","authors":"Cássio Arruda Boechat, Fábio Teixeira Pitta, Lorena Izá Pereira, Carlos de Almeida Toledo","doi":"10.19088/1968-2023.103","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19088/1968-2023.103","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores how the agricultural frontier in Brazil is conceived and how it has been historically shaped by broader socioeconomic changes. It considers the planning process linked to the Cerrado occupation during the military dictatorship (1964–85). The article analyses understandings of the frontier that connected it to concerns about ‘demographic gaps’ and shaped an agenda of state-led ‘national integration’ that neglected local populations. This analysis is linked to recent transnational real estate activities in Matopiba to document how control over the territory persists but is now driven by different protagonists and logics. We document how Brazilian agribusinesses, in association with transnational capital, have created transnational agricultural real estate companies and acquired land in frontier areas such as Matopiba. Although the violence of expropriation and deforestation persists, there are new financial mechanisms that condition the agricultural frontier and exert control over territory, quite unlike previous forms of state-led occupation.","PeriodicalId":47532,"journal":{"name":"Ids Bulletin-Institute of Development Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73145866","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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