Abstract
This paper is based on corpus data from a study that was conducted in Uganda by the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions (CRED). Using a multi-perspective approach to spoken discourse analysis, the paper discusses the manifestations and patterns of participation and decision-making as they emerge through evaluation and appraisal in the context of participatory community development processes. Taking the discourse of farmer group meetings as a genre of business meetings, the paper explores how participants use Luganda to express assessment and make decisions during interactive discourse. In this paper, I discuss the manifestations of the subtle decision-making style, which demonstrates a culturally constructed concept of participation in Luganda. I refer to this culturally unique discursive process as the non-explicit style of participation and decision-making. The main characteristic of subtle decision-making discussions is that participants reach a consensus or take a spontaneous implicit group position on a matter without anyone formally announcing the decision.
Highlights
Working in groups has been emphasized by Governments, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and development agencies as an important component of participatory rural development and empowerment (Chambers 1974: 12; Iedema 1997: 73; Orlove et al 2010: 243; Roncoli et al 2011: 127)
The process of rural development through groups brings with it new challenges of participation discourse of members at meetings (Cleaver 1999: 597; Hausendorf and Bora 2006a: 1, 2006b: 85; Roncoli et al 2011: 123)
The section concludes with a summary of the multi-perspective trends that emerge from the ‘subtle decision-making’ cluster of meetings
Summary
Working in groups has been emphasized by Governments, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and development agencies as an important component of participatory rural development and empowerment (Chambers 1974: 12; Iedema 1997: 73; Orlove et al 2010: 243; Roncoli et al 2011: 127). Participation may be construed as the direct involvement of ordinary people in the affairs of planning, governance and overall development programs at local or grassroots levels (Williams 2006: 197) This notion of participation suggests that participatory discourse emerges whenever a decision-making process requires the public to be included in an activity of social decision-making (Firth 1995: 3; Hausendorf and Bora 2006a: 1; O’Mahony and O'Sullivan 2006: 72). Participatory approaches especially among rural African communities may not always necessarily be beneficial to majority of the members of a community, even though community participation features as a key component of development programs at the local level (Roncoli et al 2011: 127; Williams 2006: 197) This situation illustrates how the established relations of social dominance expressed through language may affect processes of persuasion and assent. By discussing the non-explicit sub-genre of the evaluative discourse of Luganda meetings in the context of participatory community development processes, I make an attempt to answer the following questions: What is participatory discourse? Who participates and how do they participate? How are decisions reached?
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