Participation in research and development at the Tshikonelo agricultural project, Northern province

This article takes to task certain assumptions about participation in research and development, and criticises them for being decontextualised and ethnographically uninformed. Results of social scientific research at an existing agricultural project in the Northern Province of South Africa are brought to bear on the theory and assumptions of participatory research and development. The study starts with a theoretical account of participatory research. The point is made that there is not necessarily any connection between participatory research and participatory development. It is concluded from the subsequent case study that participation in research and development could be negatively influenced by local power dynamics, by institutional reluctance to experiment with participation, and by policy decisions and circumstances that do not lend themselves to social change. The significance of participation cannot be deduced in isolation from its context of implementation. It is concluded that participation by itself would not necessarily lead to these changes.

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Lecturer, Department of Development Studies, Rand Afrikaans University, Johannesburg. The valuable comments of Gina Buijs, Kees van der Waal, Jaco Vermaak and two anonymous referees are gratefully acknowledged.