Trend: participation and development
Since the 1970s, participation has played a role in rural
development concepts (Belshaw and Chambers 1973, Uphoff
et al. 1979). In the 1990s, participatory technology
development approaches also noted the value of local
knowledge, and that it should be integrated into the
development of innovative solutions (Röling 1996, Biggs and
Smith 1998). Specifically, Chambers (1994) emphasized the
importance of local capacity building, knowledge ownership,
and empowerment, if local end users were to adopt the
proposed solutions. These ideas were taken a step further with
the research of Ostrom et al. (1990, 1999), who suggested that
local communities throughout the world may in many cases
be able to successfully manage their own resources without
the need for centralized authorities to take local decisions.
Today we can see a widespread application of participatory
approaches in many areas of development research and
practice . However, big challenges still remain in many cases
to support transitions from centralized resource management
regimes to more decentralized regimes, as well as to develop
the skillful application of participatory approaches in practice
(Creighton 2005). We note that even though this trend is listed