How paradigms impact our facilitation approach

In his book, Whose Reality Counts, Robert Chambers compares the two paradigms of “things” and “people” towards local development, together with the implications and requirements of each. This subject can have a great bearing on how we envisage our role as facilitators of participatory processes.
We feel that aspiring facilitators need to understand how these two paradigms fundamentally differ and how they have a bearing on our approach to working with local communities. For example, you cannot claim to be empowering local people if all decisions are made in headquarters and extended to the field in a top-down manner. You cannot say you have sought and addressed the needs of all local groups if methods and technologies are a fixed package. Professionals claiming to be facilitators would seldom be seen ‘instructing’ local people on what to do.
Through exercises, the participants will be able to understand the impact of paradigms on change processes, and to recognize the one more suited to their work with local groups and communities.