ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 breaks from the broader framing of PAR to go deeper into basic tools for collectively describing and measuring the properties of elements in a list. Making a list and assigning scores to actors, factors, problems, values or options for action may seem simple enough. The task, however, raises all sorts of questions that can only be answered in context. The chapter provides step-by-step instructions, visual tools and concrete tips to free list and pile sort, rank, rate and assign weight to different elements in ways that make sense to the people involved and help them develop sound action plans. The steps are illustrated with short stories of priority setting in Burkina Faso and India; youth engagement in Canada, Cuba, Ukraine, Benin and Thailand; skill development among nurses and teachers in Canada, the United States, Belgium, France and Switzerland; and monitoring and evaluating progress on gross national happiness in the elementary schools of Bhutan.
