Participatory soil survey: experience in working with a Mesoamerican indigenous community

In traditional rural societies that still represent the majority of small farmers worldwide, the use of conventional soil survey information frequently fails because it does not take into account or underestimates soil knowledge and experience of local people. Innovative approaches have been proposed to utilize the soil knowledge of rural communities through the participation of local farmers. This paper reports experience of participatory soil survey in the Purhepecha community of San Francisco Pichataro in the volcanic highlands of central Mexico. Ethnographic and ethnopedologic techniques were applied to acquire soil and land data. Local soil knowledge was incorporated through plenary workshops designed to produce a participatory soil map based on a Purhepecha soil classification. This soil map reflects farmers' soil-landscape understanding and correlates fairly well with a scientific soil map of the same area because in both approaches terrain plays a key role in the delineation of soil units. Participatory soil mapping promoted cooperation between local and external participants and formed the basis for an agreed land-use plan

Dramaturgy as a Method for Experiential Program Design

This paper analyzes a holistic method of experiential program design, "dramaturgy " Dramaturgy, a theatre term, involves the development of themes and is characterized by the dramaturgy wave, which intertwines a wide vari ety of social, physical, creative, and reflective "games. " The dramaturgy aims to enhance the challenge to partic ipants in ways other than physical and is adapted during the program for the specific needs of the individuals and group. The findings are based on the content analysis of 70 participant responses to open-ended questions up until two years after a two-week course for international participants. The course was held in the Czech Republic in 1997 and 1998, and then Mailed at Outward Bound Australia in 1999. The results identified that the development of the course dramaturgy is an effective method of program design that has implications for the next generation of experiential program development