IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/sustdv/v4y1996i2p71-76.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Beating The Participation Trap. Ensuring Sustainable Community Development In Marginalized Communities: A South African Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Gary B. E. Boshoff

    (Institute for Social Development, University of the Western Cape, SouthAfrica)

Abstract

The transition to democracy in South Africa brought many perceived 'new' opportunities of reconstruction and development for the formerly disenfranchized black majority. Increased participation in the development process through local community empowerment was promoted, and was implemented through the establishment of local Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) forums. The RDP forums (members drawn from all the community-base organizations, political parties and other established civil organizations) were charged with the task of identifying and prioritizing the needs of the 'community' and also to make decisions on the allocation of resources to meet the identified needs. It is argued here that because of the variety of different interests represented on these forums, it became a difficult and intricate process to reach a consensus on sensitive issues such as prioritizing the allocation of scarce resources. Furthermore, by assuming functions formerly the responsibility of local authorities, the role of the latter became unclear. It is concluded that for reconstruction and development (the delivery of essential goods and services) to affect the lives of the poor and marginalized communities, it is imperative that the processes are initially driven by the national or regional RDP department, through local government structures, and not through civil society organizations such as RDP forums.

Suggested Citation

  • Gary B. E. Boshoff, 1996. "Beating The Participation Trap. Ensuring Sustainable Community Development In Marginalized Communities: A South African Perspective," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 4(2), pages 71-76.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:4:y:1996:i:2:p:71-76
    DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1099-1719(199608)4:2<71::AID-SD45>3.0.CO;2-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pretty, Jules N., 1995. "Participatory learning for sustainable agriculture," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 23(8), pages 1247-1263, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kazadi, Kande & Lievens, Annouk & Mahr, Dominik, 2016. "Stakeholder co-creation during the innovation process: Identifying capabilities for knowledge creation among multiple stakeholders," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 525-540.
    2. Phélinas, Pascale & Choumert, Johanna, 2017. "Is GM Soybean Cultivation in Argentina Sustainable?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 452-462.
    3. Silvia Scaramuzzi & Sara Gabellini & Giovanni Belletti & Andrea Marescotti, 2021. "Agrobiodiversity-Oriented Food Systems between Public Policies and Private Action: A Socio-Ecological Model for Sustainable Territorial Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-32, November.
    4. Yuichiro Amekawa & Surat Hongsibsong & Nootchakarn Sawarng & Sumeth Yadoung & Girma Gezimu Gebre, 2021. "Producers’ Perceptions of Public Good Agricultural Practices Standard and Their Pesticide Use: The Case of Q-GAP for Cabbage Farming in Chiang Mai Province, Thailand," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-25, June.
    5. Barbara Quimby & Arielle Levine, 2018. "Participation, Power, and Equity: Examining Three Key Social Dimensions of Fisheries Comanagement," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-20, September.
    6. Saifi, Basim & Drake, Lars, 2008. "A coevolutionary model for promoting agricultural sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 24-34, March.
    7. Kabiri, Ngeta, 2016. "Public participation, land use and climate change governance in Thailand," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 511-517.
    8. Vatn, Arild & Kajembe, George & Mosi, Elvis & Nantongo, Maria & Silayo, Dos Santos, 2017. "What does it take to institute REDD+? An analysis of the Kilosa REDD+ pilot, Tanzania," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 1-9.
    9. repec:cep:sticas:/184 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Krystyna Kurowska & Renata Marks-Bielska & Stanisław Bielski & Audrius Aleknavičius & Cezary Kowalczyk, 2020. "Geographic Information Systems and the Sustainable Development of Rural Areas," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-18, December.
    11. Sarah White & Jethro Pettit, 2004. "Participatory Approaches and the Measurement of Human Well-being," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2004-57, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    12. So Pyay Thar & Thiagarajah Ramilan & Robert J. Farquharson & Deli Chen, 2021. "Identifying Potential for Decision Support Tools through Farm Systems Typology Analysis Coupled with Participatory Research: A Case for Smallholder Farmers in Myanmar," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-20, June.
    13. Hugh Ward & Aletta Norval & Todd Landman & Jules Pretty, 2003. "Open Citizens’ Juries and the Politics of Sustainability," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 51(2), pages 282-299, June.
    14. Wheeler, Sarah Ann, 2008. "What influences agricultural professionals' views towards organic agriculture?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 145-154, March.
    15. Hubeau, Marianne & Marchand, Fleur & Coteur, Ine & Mondelaers, Koen & Debruyne, Lies & Van Huylenbroeck, Guido, 2017. "A new agri-food systems sustainability approach to identify shared transformation pathways towards sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 52-63.
    16. Cécile Barnaud & Annemarie van Paassen, 2013. "Equity, power games, and legitimacy: dilemmas of participatory natural resource management," Post-Print hal-01386409, HAL.
    17. Tacconi, Luca, 1997. "An ecological economic approach to forest and biodiversity conservation: The case of vanuatu," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 25(12), pages 1995-2008, December.
    18. Patrizia Isabelle Duda & Ilan Kelman & Navonel Glick, 2020. "Informal Disaster Governance," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 375-385.
    19. Johnson, A.F. & Kleiber, D. & Gomese, C. & Sukulu, M. & Saeni-Oeta, J. & Giron-Nava, A. & Cohen, P.J. & McDougall, C., 2021. "Assessing inclusion in community-based resource management: A framework and methodology," Monographs, The WorldFish Center, number 40982, April.
    20. Tanzi Smith, 2011. "Using critical systems thinking to foster an integrated approach to sustainability: a proposal for development practitioners," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 1-17, February.
    21. Huanxiu Guo & Sébastien Marchand, 2013. "Is participatory social learning a performance driver for Chinese smallholder farmers?," CERDI Working papers halshs-00878886, HAL.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:4:y:1996:i:2:p:71-76. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-1719 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.