22 pages, via online journal, Past explanations of why rural people respond as they do to external development interventions have emphasized the role of key limiting factors or critical characteristics (wealth, education, land tenure, etc.) which are thought to influence peoples' behavior in predictable ways. Efforts to promote tree planting and soil conservation in eight neighboring villages in the Philippines revealed that variation in participation did not reflect clear patterns based on existing household or village characteristics. Instead, specific responses to interventions reflected a complex, but interpretable interaction between existing socio-economic factors and historic trends or events. Characteristics like the degree of local knowledge, security of land tenure and community cohesion affected peoples' participation, in general, but their specific influence was neither predictable nor consistent between, and even within, individual villages. An appreciation of the specific historic context was often sufficient to explain these variations. The following historic trends and events were found to have important consequences for peoples' participation: migration and settlement history; family and group lineages; history of socio-political organization and conflict; history of physical isolation; labor history; economic–ecological history; environmental history; and past exposure to development agents. The paper concludes with a preliminary checklist of questions intended to assist researchers and development agents to discover relevant and interesting historical information about rural villages.
15 pages, via online journal, Purpose: This article assesses a non-traditional training methodology for extension agents, focused on the exchange of experiences among peers and the reflection on practice, with the aim of exploring its potential as a training strategy.
Design/Methodology/approach: A quali-quantitative investigation was conducted, which included interviews with extension agents, the use of different questionnaires, and recordings of the evaluation sessions carried out during each workshop.
Findings: This research allowed us to understand the importance of effective group coordination, a participatory climate, working in small groups, and the feedback loop between theory and practice for processes of experience sharing and reflection on practice. Some of the positive effects of the training observed were that extension agents acquired new knowledge and methodologies, reflected critically upon their practice, and put into question their own extension approach.
Practical Implications: Given its potentialities, implementing training processes focused on experience sharing and reflection on practice for rural extension workers, seems advisable.
Theoretical Implications: This article contributes to the understanding of how experience sharing and reflection on practice can generate transformations in rural extension agents’ approaches and positioning.
Originality/Value: This study systematically assesses the impacts that training has on extension workers, as well as the underlying processes that made it possible to generate them.
Kempadoo, Peter L. (author / Consultant on Rural Development and Education, Guyana) and Consultant on Rural Development and Education, Guyana
Format:
Conference paper
Publication Date:
1977
Published:
International
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 44 Document Number: B05330
Notes:
James F. Evans Collection, In: Gajendra Singh, J.H. de Goede, eds. Proceedings of the International Conference on Rural Development Technology : an Integrated Approach, June 21-24, 1977, Bangkok, Thailand. Bangkok, Thailand: Asian Institute of Technology, 1977. p. 711-724., Started spontaneously by a couple of village women cassava workers, in reaction to a social injustice that was being perpetrated in our village, the group had no other objective, at first, than wanting to solve that particular problem. The solution they worked out - a cooperative, economic one - soon attracted a large number of other villagers. Together they became the Bantu Society. Economic success and interaction within the group also made them generally aware of the social underdevelopment of their families, and this led to a wide range of socio-economic activities which now comprise a closely-integrated village development programme. (original).
Dong, Youl-Mo (author / Chief of Community Development Division, Office of Rural Development, Suweon, South Korea) and Chief of Community Development Division, Office of Rural Development, Suweon, South Korea
Format:
Conference paper
Publication Date:
1977
Published:
International
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 44 Document Number: B05331
Notes:
James F. Evans Collection, In: Gajendra Singh, J.H. de Goede, eds. Proceedings of the International Conference on Rural Development Technology : an Integrated Approach, June 21-24, 1977, Bangkok, Thailand. Bangkok, Thailand: Asian Institute of Technology, 1977. p. 725-732., Rural development can be described as an integrated approach to improve the quality of life of the people in the rural community by means of not only physical development but also human resources development with a strong policy as a national program. In order to achieve rural development effectively, it is necessary to integrate every governmental agency and institution as well as civil organizations to focus their attention on all multi-dimensional elements for rural prosperity. In this point of view, the integrated rural development program in Korea called Saemaul Undong (New Village Movement), which is first priority of the national action program, will be suitable example for a case study to those who are interested in the field. (original).
Hunter, Guy (author / Senior Research Officer, Overseas Development Institute, London, UK) and Senior Research Officer, Overseas Development Institute, London, UK
Format:
Conference paper
Publication Date:
1977
Published:
International
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 44 Document Number: B05322
Notes:
duplicated in C19432, James F. Evans Collection; Burton Swanson Collection, In: Gajendra Singh, J.H. de Goede, eds. Proceedings of the International Conference on Rural Development Technology : an Integrated Approach, June 21-24, 1977, Bangkok, Thailand. Bangkok, Thailand: Asian Institute of Technology, 1977. p. 15-34., This paper examines what modification, in the concept of planning, would be needed if Districts were to have far more discretion in adopting nationally-conceived programmes to real local needs and also in particular to local initiatives and localised programmes which may emerge from local diagnosis and consultations with farmers. The paper distinguished between executive planning (where the government controls the executive changes, e.g., building a dam) and enabling planning (where the objective is to increase any output by farmers which the government can control or plan in detail because the response of farmers to offers and persuasion is wholly in the discretion of the farmers themselves). The paper considers how plans which must necessarily be made at the centre and proposals which must necessarily come from the farmers can be reconciled. (original)
