Barriers to Community Participation and Rural Development: The hidden secrets in community participation

Community participation has been in the development discourse since the late 1960s, but the complexities that still exist has not only made the application of the concept very difficult, but has made it very difficult for development organisations to effectively carry out participatory work within rural communities. While organisations are making efforts to apply the principles of participation the lack of understanding of why rural people are not participating still remains unclear. This book therefore makes it very explicit for practitioners of rural development, mostly NGOs and other governmental organisations to understand how they will understand the real rural situation so as to appreciate the complexities of participation and lack of participation. This book will help development practitioners to effectively apply the principles of participation and rural development.

Dr Joseph E Cobbinah is an Educationist and Social Research Scientist. He is currently a lecturer at the University of Ghana Legon. He holds a BEd (Hons) degree from the University of Nottingham, MSc from the Open University, an MPhil from the Fitzwilliam College University of Cambridge, PGDRes and a PhD from the University of Bradford, UK.