A Case Study about People Participation in Community Development: Planned Village Settlement in Malaysia
Abstract: In this study, the people’s participation in community development activities is viewed as a process by which individuals are involved in initiating, deciding, planning, implementing and managing the group and its activities. It is also a process of social development in which people, as subjects in their own environment, seek out ways to meet their collective needs and expectations and to overcome their common problems. In pursuing this collective action, the self-help and mutual-help spirit that underlies the Asian traditional community spirit of working, helped to hasten the achievement of these shared interests through group-based-activities.
Introduction: Participation is a dynamic process. Hence, it is difficult to predict or even to quantify using a standard ‘measurement’. Participation is rather molded by, and originates from, individuals’ experiences in participating. As such, the qualitative-ethnographic approach employed in this study was able to assist in understanding the process of people’s participation in community development activities. This approach has also helped to deepen the knowledge about participation itself. This was not achieved merely by putting ‘participation’ into a measurable variable that can be operationalized into four quantifiable aspects, i.e. decision making, implementing, benefit sharing and evaluation. Keep reading…
