Triple Task and the Philosophers Stone: discovering a methodology for systemic and reflective participation

The European Union Framework Package 7 project POINT (Policy Influence of Indicators) is exploring the use of indicators in several domains (most specifically sustainable development) in order to see how their value and ultimate usefulness can be maximised. One key aspect of POINT is to assess the ways in which groups and communities work to gain greatest use of information. Using an innovative methodology called 'Triple Task', the authors are applying a three cornered approach in order to gain an understanding as to how groups work, how they assesses themselves and how they appear to function from an external perspective. In this paper, the three stages of Triple Task are described and explored. Task One is effectively an adapted 'soft systems' approach, encouraging a group to work together on problem identification and action planning. Task 2 is a reflective, 'outside in', external review of group dynamics which makes use of the 'BECM' matrix for group systemic assessment first developed by the Systems Group at the UK Open University. Task 3 is an 'inside-out' self-reflective group analysis applying the well-known SYMLOG method. By use of a tri-analysis involving both qualitative and quantitative approaches, the authors show how during Triple Task managed events a 'story' emerges of group learning and development and, how a potential diagnostic tool for educing purposeful group behaviour has emerged. The research is in its early stages, but following the analysis of numerous groups from a range of sectors from across the European Union the authors are gaining clarity over what features are most consistent between purposeful group behaviour and group makeup. This is leading towards the development of a 'Triple Task' heuristic device for measuring and even predicting the systemic and reflective capacities of specific groups and communities and this could in turn result in means for improving participative effectiveness in a wide range of social engagements.

Volunteering and Social Activism: Pathways for Participation in Human Development

This discussion paper explores the following questions, drawing on the above-mentioned background study: How is volunteering an d social activism understood?; How do volunteering and social activism foster people's participation?; What is the relationship between participation and development?; What is required to widen and sustain participation

Communities of knowledge and knowledge of communities: An appreciative inquiry into rural wellbeing

This article offers a retrospective examination of the use of appreciative inquiry (AI) in a study on rural wellbeing. It provides a reflection on the rationale for choosing AI as a suitable methodology, critiques the application of AI in rural settings and considers its suitability for this inquiry into individual and community wellbeing. The article also considers the value of AI as a participatory research approach for community-university partnerships. A review of the literature on AI is distilled to examine the limitations as well as the utility of AI. Through an effective use of AI, communities of knowledge can be fostered and the knowledge of communities can be valued and harvested to enhance the wellbeing of rural communities.Keywords: appreciative inquiry, wellbeing, rural community, community-university partnership

Community Development: A Guide for Grantmakers on Fostering Better Outcomes Through Good Process

Focuses on participation and collaboration as major elements of processes that are effective. Provides examples of, and offers tools for overcoming, challenges to collaboration. Includes strategies and resources for evaluation and collaboration

Institutional Learning and Change: An initiative to promote greater impact through agricultural research for poverty alleviation

The ILAC Initiative consists of an evolving community of individuals committed to increasing the contributions of agricultural research to sustainable poverty reduction around the world. ILAC promotes research, methodology development and capacity development to increase understanding of agricultural change processes and increase the effectiveness of interventions to stimulate pro-poor innovation. This paper presents a broad overview of ILAC, including its background, origins and evolution, objectives and activities. It also presents the initiative’s central hypothesis and a set of guiding questions. Theoretical frameworks that show promise for increasing understanding of issues related to capacities to learn, facilitate innovation, and contribute to poverty reduction are introduced.agricultural, research, ILAC, pro-poor, innovation, farmers, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Security and Poverty, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Rural Livelihood Strategies and Social Capital in Latin America: Implications for Rural Development Projects

Evidence from studies across Latin America show that rural households in the region are increasingly employing a diverse set of activities to maintain and improve livelihoods suggesting that households use multiple paths to get out of poverty. Of particular importance in household livelihood strategies are the assets households own and the context in which they operate. Recent development literature has highlighted the important role of social capital in development and particular emphasis is place on the role of this asset in this paper. The objective of this paper is to examine these trends in order to inform project design and implementation in the region. Based on the conceptual framework and evidence from Latin America, the paper offers a number of suggestions for improving project design and implementation in Latin America.rural livelihoods, social capital, Latin America, rural development projects, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Labor and Human Capital,

Evaluation of stakeholder participation in monitoring regional sustainable development

This paper presents a theoretical framework that can be used to discuss the question of how context, time and different participatory process designs influence the results of participatory monitoring projects in terms of concrete outputs (such as sustainability indicators) and the more intangible social outcomes (such as learning and stakeholder relations). We will discuss and compare four different cases of participatory monitoring of provincial sustainable development in the Netherlands. The results show sustainability issues selected by the stakeholders reflect the socio-economic and ecological structural characteristics of their region. In a different context, stakeholders not only assign different weights to the same set of issues, but more importantly they select a completely different set of regional aims altogether. Since these regional structural characteristics only change slowly over time, the influence of time on stakeholder preferences is shown to be only of minor importance. However, the dissipation of learning effects is shown to be a fundamental challenge for the cyclical nature of participatory monitoring, especially when its goal is shared agenda building. Another important conclusion is that, in the design of participatory processes, more attention should be devoted to providing stakeholders with the opportunity to comment on an ‘intermediate’ product

Analysis of Intergenerational Policy Models

Contemporary demographic processes forcing increasing attention to the problems of relationships and dependencies between the different age groups. The ageing of the population in each society leads to changes in the contacts between young people, adults and the elderly. It is reasonable to undertake research on the concept of "solidarity of generations". Maintaining relationships without generational conflict requires actions in the field of social policy known as intergenerational policy. Aim of this article is to present some of its models, which allow not only to analyze the changes in the various communities, but also to create recommendations for public intervention. Description will include activities at the international, national, regional and local levels