ABSTRACT
Since the mid-1970s, a methodological revolution has gathered pace with the accelerating evolution of rapid and participatory methodologies and applications spawning a veritable library of approaches and acronyms – Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA), Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and Participatory Learning and Action. This chapter focuses on Robert Chambers’s methodological contributions over a period in which we were researchers in the Sustainable Agriculture Programme of the International Institute of Environment and Development, London, in the late 1980s and 1990s. The key difference between PRA and RRA lies in the location of power in the research process. Ever one to coin a new phrase, Robert has pointed out that good practice in participatory research and development has moved us towards an ‘eclectic pluralism’ in which branding, labels, ownership and ego are giving way to sharing, borrowing, improvisation, creativity and diversity, all these complemented by mutual and critically reflective learning and personal responsibility.
