Revolutions in Development Inquiry

Robert Chambers. (2008). London, UK: Earthscan. (Copyright: Institute of Development Studies)

Chambers overviews a proliferation of participatory methodologies (PMs) without precedent in diverse areas and purposes by writing, "More and more consultants, facilitators, researchers and activists have become eclectic and innovative pluralists who devise sequences and combinations of methods to fit each case...What they do is new each time. At its best this is a performance, an art form. And what they do is often not named" (p.170), thus PMs evolve in a multiplicity and often without recognition. [It is notable that he mentions consultants, facilitators and activists along with researchers. The eclecticism of PM can be also found who employs this methodology and effectively blurs the boundary between research and activism.]

Chambers underpins three underlying theoretical dimensions of PM: 1) a paradigmatic shift from things to people, 2) theories of chaos, complexity and emergence and 3) creative and eclectic pluralism.

According to him, the paradigm of things fits the physical world, which is often top-down, centralized, standardized, simplified and reductionist, values measurement and its outputs are physical things such as infrastructure and reports. On the other hand, that of people fits the social world, which is bottom-up, decentralized, diverse, complex and inclusive, values judgement, and has outputs that are social such as capabilities and relationships. PMis aligned with people and process. Secondly, grounding in bottom-up logic based SOSOTEC (self-organizing systems on the edge of chaos) mode, Chambers stresses that participants can and often do make rules and guidelines through participation, in other words, they can theorize from their own practices. In emphasizing the pluralism, Chambers says, "the boundaries have become more porous and less significant. Pervasively the spirit now is one of seeking, finding, borrowing, adopting, adapting, cross-fertilizing and inventing" (p. 177). [As Kincheloe continued to stres, bricolage as methodologies becomes a necessity.]

In his reviews of the range of PMs, Chambers summarizes its commonality as follows: "[A]ll of them imply sharing and influce relationships, and all of them affect behaviour, attitudes and mindsets and these in turn become part of professional, institutional and personal change."


Chaos: Gleick, 1998, Chaos: Making a New Science.
Complexity: Waldrop, 1994, Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos.
Emergence: Johnson, 2002. Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software.