ABSTRACT
Alternatives were sought, and in promoting local-level, even antidevelopment, approaches, Escobar (1995: 98) perhaps captures the spirit best when he writes: ‘the remaking of development must start by examining local constructions, to the extent that they are the life and history of the people, that is, the conditions of and for change’. This highlights the importance of local-level histories, geographies and sociocultural constructs in understanding community-level development, as well as the need for a more explicit acknowledgement of indigenous knowledge as a valid body of knowledge. Despite this, much current development thinking still reflects the dominance of formal science; development remains a technical challenge and the voices of the poor and dispossessed are still little heard. However, the challenge for a new vision remains, and there is increasing sympathy for the view that ‘there is now an explicit understanding among many promoters and practitioners that farmer participatory research has clear advantages for the development of appropriate, environmentally friendly and sustainable production systems’ (Okali, Sumberg and Farrington 1994: 6).
