Prajateerpu, Power and Knowledge: The Politics of Participatory Action Research in Development Part 1. Context, Process and Safeguards

by :Michel Pimbert and Tom Wakeford

ABSTRACT
Prajateerpu (translation: ‘people’s verdict’) has been devised as an exercise for allowing those people most affected by the ‘Vision 2020’ for food and farming in Andhra Pradesh (AP, India) to shape a vision of their own. We explore Prajateerpu as a case study in participatory action research that took place against a background of social, political and scientific controversy in which we were active participants. Having examined different methods in combination, including the citizens’ jury, scenario workshop and public hearings involved in the Prajateerpu
process, we assess the safeguards that were put in place to ensure a balanced and credible deliberative process. We suggest that the exchanges between the five organizations that formed the core team, the facilitators, oversight panel, witnesses, and jurors in Prajateerpu, along with the use of a set of carefully designed safeguards, may contain valuable lessons for those who wish to engage in collaborative inquiries where the political stakes in the outcome of this way of knowing are high.

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