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Participation and Power: Poor People's Engagement with India's Employment Assurance Scheme
Author(s) -
Williams Glyn,
Véron René,
Corbridge Stuart,
Srivastava Manoj
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
development and change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.267
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1467-7660
pISSN - 0012-155X
DOI - 10.1111/1467-7660.00300
Subject(s) - grassroots , empowerment , citizen journalism , participatory development , power (physics) , context (archaeology) , economic growth , sociology , public relations , political science , process (computing) , public administration , economics , geography , law , computer science , archaeology , politics , operating system , physics , quantum mechanics
‘Participation’ has become an essential part of good developmental practice for Southern governments, NGOs and international agencies alike. In this article we reflect critically on this shift by investigating how a ‘participatory’ development programme — India's Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS) — intersects with poor people's existing social networks. By placing the formalized process of participation in the EAS within the context of these varied and uneven village–level relationships, we raise a number of important issues for participatory development practice. We note the importance of local power brokers and the heterogeneity of ‘grassroots’ (dis)empowerment, and question ideas of power reversals used within the participatory development literature.