Governance, Participation and Empowerment: A non-prescriptive approach

RODRÍGUEZ BILELLA, PABLO

Rural Governance: International Perspectives

Routledge

Lugar: Oxon, UK; Año: 2007; p. 143 - 159

The concept of governance has gained great popularity across many of the social sciences during the last decade, although it has been used differently in a variety of contexts. Nevertheless, it is possible to identify some shared characteristics that provide the basis of the governance perspectives (Bonfiglioli 2003; Rhodes 1996; Shaffer 2001). These include: a strong interest in self-organising, inter-organisational networks; shifting boundaries between public, private and voluntary organizations; and an indirect and imperfect ´steering´ by the state. For Jessop (1995) the concept of governance signals a concern for the mechanisms of government that are not necessarily ‘anchored’ to the nation state. The concept of governance is broader than government (the latter being concerned with the formal institutions and structures of the state), paying attention to the multiple ways in which governmental and non-governmental organisations interact, and to the ways in which political power and authority are distributed throughout society (Goodwin 2003). Although the study of local governance has, until recently, been an underdeveloped field in rural sociology (Frouws 1997; Goodwin 1998), studies of rural governance are nowadays growing and focus mainly upon specific policy areas (Goodwin 2003; MacKinnon 2002). Adopting a different perspective in this chapter, I am interested in paying attention to the links between concrete practices and broader trends and processes in the relationship between the economy, the state, policy and society (see also Little 2001). Specifically, I want to advance the discussion of rural governance and participation in the context of Latin America, taking as a starting point the case of the Social Funds. These can be understood as particular governance arrangements that have emerged since the mid 1980s in Latin America (and later in Africa and Asia) aimed at reducing or countering the adverse economic shocks that affect the poor and vulnerable during the implementation of structural adjustment programmes. Assuming a descriptive-analytical view of the governance perspective, I will argue about the usefulness of adopting a so-called actor-oriented approach as the research lens is shifted from examining the outputs of rural governance to investigating it as a process – especially from the perspective of those living in rural areas (Goodwin 2003; Long 1992). In this way, a direct engagement with issues of participation will provide a key stimulus for a non-normative view of governance issues (Little 2001). This chapter is organized in four sections, below. The first section discusses governance, maintaining that an actor-oriented approach could be an important theoretical and methodological tool in the investigation of governance issues. Participation is introduced as a key dimension of the governance debate. Participation is examined within the framework of development interventions in general, and Social Funds, in particular. The second section makes use of ethnographic material from research among small farmers groups in order to understand the implementation of a Social Fund in Argentina - the so-called Agricultural Social Programme (PSA).The third section discusses various threads from the Argentinian case study, and the fourth concludes the chapter by highlighting how the insights gained from the research might extend beyond rural Argentina.