and evaluations centre-stage and propose to conceive and measure these
directly rather than via other proxies. Different disciplines and perspectives
have contributed to this stream of research, but three have been of special
importance and are surveyed here: subjective quality of life research by
health psychologists and clinicians (see Schmidt and Bullinger 2007), the
psychology of affect balance and life satisfaction, and the economics of
happiness18. Although these streams mainly originated in rich countries and
reflect their concerns, they are expanding into the majority world19. Their
relevance to understanding poverty and wellbeing has only recently been
appreciated within development studies, but they have a clear antecedent in
the concern with ‘participation’ and participatory research, with which we
begin.
The participatory perspective in development coalesced in the late 1980s
and 1990s at the confluence of several distinct streams. At one extreme,
Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) was devised for development consultants
seeking quicker and more cost-effective techniques to assess people’s
material conditions and social networks in the field. At the other,
participatory research was developed as a means to empower
disadvantaged people by giving them tools of analysis and awareness, for
example, by community organisers influenced by Paolo Freire’s ideas of
conscientisation (Bennet and Roberts 2004; Freire 1970). Criticism of the
quality of preparatory research and planning from both academics and the
supposed ‘beneficiaries’ (for example, members of the African liberation
movements whose slogan was ‘nothing about us, without us’), combined
with the sheer weight of experience, supported the perspective that people
living within a situation had a better understanding of the many issues facing