Ideas for Development
Robert Chambers
Our world seems entangled in systems increasingly dominated by power, greed, ignorance, self-deception and denial, with spiralling inequity and injustice. Against a backdrop of climate change, failing ecosystems, poverty, crushing debt and corporate exploitation, the future of our world looks dire and the solutions almost too monumental to consider.
Yet all is not lost. Robert Chambers, one of the ?glass is half full? optimists of international development, suggests that the problems can be solved and everyone has the power at a personal level to take action, develop solutions and remake our world as it can and should be. Chambers peels apart and analyses aspects of development that have been neglected or misunderstood. In each chapter, he presents an earlier writing which he then reviews and reflects upon in a contemporary light before harvesting a wealth of powerful conclusions and practical implications for the future. The book draws on experiences from Africa, Asia and elsewhere, covering topics and concepts as wide and varied as irreversibility, continuity and commitment; administrative capacity as a scarce resource; procedures and principles; participation in the past, present and future; scaling up; behaviour and attitudes; responsible wellbeing; and concepts for development in the 21st century.
Reviews
'With much of our world dominated by extremes of power and inequality, and with a litany of development problems including conflict, debt, corporate irresponsibility, unfair trade and climate change, the author of this book, one of the critical optimists of international development, points to the scope that all development actors have to find good things to do. He argues that practical potentials can be found in ideas and aspects of development that have previously been overlooked or misunderstood. Each chapter presents and reviews one of his earlier writings, examines subsequent experience, and then derives conclusions and implications for the future. The ideas and opportunities include: narrowing the gaps between words and actions; reducing the demands on administrative capacity; using minimum rules, non-negotiables and downward accountability to transform power relations; finding new potentials for participation; improving scaling up; critical reflection and experiential learning; complementing rights-based with obligations-based approaches; pro-poor realism; and responsible well-being.'
Oxfam Development Resources Review
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Robert Chambers is Research Associate, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex and the author of Participatory Workshops (2002)
Words and Ideas: Commitment, Continuity and Irreversibility; Aid and Administrative Capacity; Procedures, Principles and Power; Participation: Reviews, Reflections and Future; PRA, Participation and Going to Scale; Behaviour, Attitudes and Beyond; Ideas for the Future; Bibliography