Participatory mural painting and identifying resources in Asset Based Community Development research: a case in rural Ecuador

Abstract

Most development communication scholarship uses adeficits-based approach to social change. The asset-based community development (ABCD) emphasizes identifying acommunity’s strengths to promote social change. We offer an asset mapping that uses participatory mural painting as its discovery method. As part of an ongoing engagement in rural Ecuador, we worked with the children of Bellamaria, Loja to paint representations of assets in their community. Children identified both natural resources and relational resources as assets. Through an analysis of the mural, we demonstrate practical method for children for portraying assets in ABCD.