Transforming Participation?: The Politics of Development in Malawi and Ireland

Abstract

In a world of growing prosperity, the increasing polarisation of the world’s community, both between and within countries, is evidence of significant shortcomings in, if not a failure of development. The growing marginalisation of significant sections of the world’s population is not just material however, it is also political. With public disaffection and social unrest on the increase, both in Ireland and worldwide, as people, ignored, exploited and alienated by the purposeful, onward march of economic globalisation, respond angrily to the failures of development in all its dimensions, the need to rethink our collective development paths is ever more urgent. In this book I have endeavoured to make a contribution in this regard by examining the potentials of two governance processes currently in place, underpinned by concepts of ‘partnership’ and ‘participation’, for engaging these disaffected voices. This is not a book about the ‘what’ of development, it is a book about its ‘how’. The focus is not on prescribed development solutions, but on the mechanisms by which development problems, and indeed strengths, may be framed, analysed and deliberated upon, and by whom. The underlying contention is that development, both ‘North’ and ‘South’, needs to re-engage with the lived realities of marginalised peoples. Their experiences, analyses, dreams and visions need to find expression within current development policy.