A Voice for the Excluded - Matthias Stiefel

This comparative study of participation in development is hardheaded in its conclusion that beneficial development requires the redistribution of power to local communities. The book pulls together the findings of field studies among both rural and urban communities in Latin American and Asian countries, and in Tanzania, to assess what has happened to popular participation since the beginning of the 1980s and to sketch out its future direction .The focus is on the organized efforts of 'the excluded' as well as of NGOs, the state and international agencies. It shows how all interact to encourage, coopt or undermine participatory struggles and initiatives. The book combines historical context and theoretical clarity with sociological examination of a wide variety of actual cases.