Participation and empowerment as emancipatory praxis: an ethnographic study of an NGO in Chiapas, Mexico

Garland Mason and Kim L. Niewolny

Development in Practice, 2022, vol. 32, issue 5, 671-683

Abstract: Despite a robust legacy of scholarship that has critiqued participation in development, the relationship between participation and empowerment remains unclear. Adelanto is a small non governmental organisation in Chiapas, Mexico, engaged in radical participatory community development. Using an ethnographic approach, we examined Adelanto’s politicised participatory approach, analysing assumptions that attempt to link radical participation with empowerment. Our findings illustrate Adelanto’s commitment to a participatory approach defined by solidarity as critical to their success in advancing participant self-mobilisation. These results represent new insight into linkages between participation, empowerment, and emancipation by demonstrating the centrality of downward accountability within localised development praxis.

Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09614524.2021.1937527 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:cdipxx:v:32:y:2022:i:5:p:671-683

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/cdip20

DOI: 10.1080/09614524.2021.1937527

Access Statistics for this article

Development in Practice is currently edited by Emily Finlay

More articles in Development in Practice from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().