Provocations for Development

by Robert Chambers

Do we use obscure or fashionable words to impress our colleagues or win research proposals? Are many of our actions against poverty simple, direct and wrong? Provocations for Development is an entertaining and unsettling collection of writings that questions concepts, conventions and practices in development. It is made up of short and accessible writings by Robert Chambers reflecting on the evolution of concepts like participation and of organizations like the World Bank. Besides provocations, there is mischief, verse and serious fun. The book irreverently examines vocabularies of development and how words are instruments of power; challenges concepts of poverty, presents empowering breakthroughs in the current explosion of participatory methodologies; is critical of past and present procedures and practices in aid; points to feasible changes for doing better; touches on values, ethics, gender and participation, immersions, hypocrisy, and paradigms; and finally invites readers to ponder the question ‘what would it take to eliminate poverty in the world?’

240 pages, Hardcover

First published April 15, 2012

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"