290122 PS Participatory research methods in development research (2018S)

In September, 2015, the United Nations adopted the so-called Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that went into effect on 1 January, 2016. By doing so, the global community set 17 highly ambitious goals aiming at the improvement of life conditions for all people worldwide until 2030, including the complete eradication of hunger and poverty.

As for all fields, this constitutes a major challenge for development research that aims at contributing to the improvement of living conditions of people in the developing countries through the production of knowledge on living conditions.

By now, one of the major paradigms of development research is the actor’s perspective that considers researched populations as experts of their living conditions and, thus, places them at the center of the research interest and actively involves them in the research process.

Since the 1990ies, the so-called Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) has evolved as one of the most efficient approaches for development researcher and practitioners to collect data as well as plan development projects. PRA is a methodology that employs various kinds of participatory methods to collectively collect data and plan processes with rural populations and decision makers to understand local living conditions, identify potentials for change and conceptualize as well as implement processes to utilize them.

The aim of the seminar is to acquaint students with essential PRA methods to apply them in roles plays. Based on these experiences, the students will evaluate the methods regarding their potentials as well as limitations.

The working methods utilized in the seminar will include joint analyses and discussions of relevant texts and documents, own research of sources and materials, the practice of research methods in role plays, and the writing of a term paper. Participatory teaching methods will feature prominently in the course.