9.2 Employing Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) Tools
Within Agricultural and Environmental Research
for Upland Development: Potential and Limitations
9.2.1 Introduction
Most proponents of stakeholder participation in research regard participatory
approaches both as a philosophy and as a set of tools or methods that can facilitate
communication and interaction between scientists and local stakeholders
(Chambers 1997; Nagel et al. 2005).
2 PRA is probably the most comprehensive
set of interactive methods, and a number of handbooks have been written to
facilitate the use of these supposedly interactive methods (e.g., Scho ¨nhuth and
Kievelitz 1994; Bechstedt 2000). In the previous section we examined some of
the criticisms aimed at the most popular of these approaches, PRA, which, like its
predecessor RRA, has sometimes been dubbed “quick and dirty” (Richards 1985).
However, we argue in this chapter that specific methods within the PRA ‘package’
have the potential to enrich conventional quantitative and qualitative methods.
9.2.2 The Use of PRA Tools Within Interdisciplinary Research
Contexts in Uplands Areas: Examples from the Uplands
Program in Vietnam
In Vietnam, numerous Uplands Program sub-projects have applied PRA tools to a
wide variety of research topics. This section summarizes the experiences gained
from collaborative work carried out across four such sub-projects for the years 2003
and 2004 (for a detailed discussion, see Friederichsen 2009). The examples given
here discuss the use of PRA tools in two natural sciences-oriented research projects
(pasture management and aquaculture) and two social sciences projects (commonpool resources and risk management). Table 9.1 provides an overview linking the
specific PRA tools used to the topic areas.
A basic challenge faced by all research projects wanting to access local
perspectives in the Vietnamese uplands is the multiplicity of languages spoken by
the local population. In Yen Chau; for instance, the Vietnamese and Thai languages
are lingua franca, but proficiency in Vietnamese and Thai among Hmong and Kho
Mu villagers is limited, particularly among the elderly and female villagers. Importantly, Vietnamese is at the same time the language of officialdom and the one in
which PRA sessions are conducted; therefore, the (Vietnamese language) lexicon
available for encounters between minority villagers and researchers tends to be
2 This section draws partly on Neef et al. 2012.
9 Participatory Approaches to Research and Development in the Southeast. . .
327
Within Agricultural and Environmental Research
for Upland Development: Potential and Limitations
9.2.1 Introduction
Most proponents of stakeholder participation in research regard participatory
approaches both as a philosophy and as a set of tools or methods that can facilitate
communication and interaction between scientists and local stakeholders
(Chambers 1997; Nagel et al. 2005).
2 PRA is probably the most comprehensive
set of interactive methods, and a number of handbooks have been written to
facilitate the use of these supposedly interactive methods (e.g., Scho ¨nhuth and
Kievelitz 1994; Bechstedt 2000). In the previous section we examined some of
the criticisms aimed at the most popular of these approaches, PRA, which, like its
predecessor RRA, has sometimes been dubbed “quick and dirty” (Richards 1985).
However, we argue in this chapter that specific methods within the PRA ‘package’
have the potential to enrich conventional quantitative and qualitative methods.
9.2.2 The Use of PRA Tools Within Interdisciplinary Research
Contexts in Uplands Areas: Examples from the Uplands
Program in Vietnam
In Vietnam, numerous Uplands Program sub-projects have applied PRA tools to a
wide variety of research topics. This section summarizes the experiences gained
from collaborative work carried out across four such sub-projects for the years 2003
and 2004 (for a detailed discussion, see Friederichsen 2009). The examples given
here discuss the use of PRA tools in two natural sciences-oriented research projects
(pasture management and aquaculture) and two social sciences projects (commonpool resources and risk management). Table 9.1 provides an overview linking the
specific PRA tools used to the topic areas.
A basic challenge faced by all research projects wanting to access local
perspectives in the Vietnamese uplands is the multiplicity of languages spoken by
the local population. In Yen Chau; for instance, the Vietnamese and Thai languages
are lingua franca, but proficiency in Vietnamese and Thai among Hmong and Kho
Mu villagers is limited, particularly among the elderly and female villagers. Importantly, Vietnamese is at the same time the language of officialdom and the one in
which PRA sessions are conducted; therefore, the (Vietnamese language) lexicon
available for encounters between minority villagers and researchers tends to be
2 This section draws partly on Neef et al. 2012.
9 Participatory Approaches to Research and Development in the Southeast. . .
327