Prologue: Reflections on participation in Southwest China in the early 2000s (PLA 62)

This prologue to Participatory Learning and Action (PLA 62) is written by Andreas Wilkes, who has worked in China promoting participatory approaches in rural development and natural resources management for over fifteen years.

His prologue presents a reflection on participation in the early 2000s. The reflection took place at a time when a first wave of participatory approaches had been introduced and practitioners saw a need to conduct a critical reflection on the impacts, based on evidence from the field. The aim was to convince government leaders that participation was useful. The wider governance context of participatory approaches was firmly put on the agenda of PRA practitioners around the time of this reflection process.