ABSTRACT
The framework for development practice presented in Chapter Seven proposes a specifi c role for development practitioners: to broker relationships among diverse development actors and, in doing so, to catalyze innovation. This framework recognizes that development practice needs to be understood fi rst and foremost as a social process rather than primarily a technical or managerial one. It emphasizes the importance of local knowledges and highlights the need for disadvantaged communities and other development actors to form relationships that value and respect their different knowledges and logics. Finally, it asserts that the coming together of these different knowledges can spark new solutions. Nevertheless, this often fails to occur in practice due to social, strategic, and notional distances among development actors. Innovative practitioners can help to bridge these distances through an intentional process of knowledge partnering.
