The Importance of Participatory Mapping

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This reminds me of when I try to help friends who are dealing with a difficult situation. Most of what I should be doing is just asking them questions that help them reflect on their own challenge. If you're asked questions and you're an outsider, it's usually possible to turn them around into questions to be explored by the participants. And learning to do that can be perhaps quite important. So another concept you mentioned briefly is participatory mapping. Could you tell us what that is? Yes. Well, that is asking people if they can make a map on the ground. There are methods for doing this. It all started in South India. We had special colored powders called Rangoli

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What is the field of development? What are the differences between rapid and participatory rural appraisal? Under what conditions should qualitative surveys be preferred over quantitative and vice versa? What is participatory mapping? How has the field of development changed over the last few decades? Why do people get taller when sanitation improves?

Robert Chambers is a British academic and development practitioner. He spent his academic career at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. In 2013, he became an honorary fellow of the International Institute of Social Studies. He has been one of the leading advocates for putting the poor, destitute, and marginalized at the center of the processes of development policy since the 1980s. Learn more about him here.

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