Into the Unknown: Explorations in Development Practice by Robert Chambers

by Robert Chambers

This book challenges readers to examine the pervasive significance of power in forming and framing knowledge. "Into the Unknown" reflects on the journey of learning, and encourages readers to learn from observation, curiosity, critical feedback, play and fun. This book includes tips on how to lead into workshops and on how to convene workshops that can co-generate knowledge and have an influence.Development is about change, and lives immersed in researching international development should be prepared for exploration, for discovering the unexpected, and for questioning the direction that development is taking. Robert Chambers reflects on experiences in his own life, which led him to examine personal biases and predispositions. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) are two movements that have benefited from sharing practice, innovations and experience through participatory workshops. Finally, the author asks whether the new dual realities virtual and physical are getting out of balance and encourages readers to explore through experiential learning in the physical and social world.

Paperback

First published January 15, 2014

About the author

There is more than one Robert Chambers in the Goodreads Library

Robert John Haylock Chambers (1932-) is a British academic and development practitioner. He spent his academic career at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. In 2013 he became an honorary fellow of the International Institute of Social Studies. He has been one of the leading advocates for putting the poor, destitute and marginalized at the center of the processes of development policy since the 1980s. In particular he argues they should be taken into account when the development problem is identified, policy formulated and projects implemented. He popularized within development circles such phrases as "putting the last first" and stressed the now generally accepted need for development professionals to be critically self-aware. The widespread acceptance of a "participatory" approach is in part due to his work. This includes participatory rural appraisal.

Robert Chambers and G.R. Conway provided the first elaborated definition of the concept of sustainable livelihoods which reads: "a livelihood comprises the capabilities, assets (stores, resources, claims and access) and activities required for a means of living: a livelihood is sustainable which can cope with and recover from stress and shocks, maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets, and provide sustainable livelihood opportunities for the next generation; and which contributes net benefits too there livelihoods at the local and global levels and in the short and long term"