Social Change Through Collective Reflection with Asian Nongovernmental Development Organizations

Abstract

"Participatory action research" has been acclaimed for producing new knowledge as well as solutions to organizational and social problems. But the term has quite different meanings to different audiences: The "Southern" tradition is committed to community transformation through empowering disenfranchised groups; the "Northern" tradition is concerned with reforming organizations through problem-solving. This paper describes a series of collective reflections that brought together leaders of development agencies from Southern and Northern settings to consider the roles of nongovernmental development organizations (NGOs) in promoting sustainable development. The results of these reflections, in terms of new knowledge and new action strategies, are illustrated. Critical processes for such collective reflection, including the management of value and ideological differences, the definition of participation, and the organization of joint inquiry are discussed. The paper also discusses the implications of such reflections for re-defining the social realities of key actors in the development drama, and so catalyzing major changes in development theory and action through relatively small interventions.