The Participatory Paradigm: anathema, praise and confusion, Jacqueline Goldin

Sites across the developing world bear the marks of failed projects touted as ‘participatory’ that have not fully, or meaningfully, involved stakeholders at multiple scales. This chapter isolates ‘four fatal flaws’ to interrogate the concept of participation: (1) participation is enmeshed with notions of decentralization and devolution, resulting in lack of clarity with respect to these broader discourses and shifts; (2) participation is too often supply-driven, rather than demand-driven; (3) vagueness about what participation means results it meaning different things to different people, and (4) it often has a focus on form rather than substance.