In recent years, changes in participatory methodologies (PMs) may have been even more
rapid than those in spatial technologies. Local people’s abilities to make maps only became
widely known and facilitated in the early 1990s. Participatory mapping has spread like a
pandemic with many variants and applications not only in natural resource management but
also in many other domains. With mapping as one element, there are now signs of a new
pluralist eclecticism and creativity in PMs. The medium and means of mapping, whether
ground, paper or GIS and the style and mode of facilitation, influence who takes part, the
nature of outcomes and power relationships. Much depends on the behaviour and attitudes of
facilitators and who controls the process. Many ethical issues present troubling dilemmas,
and lead to overarching questions about empowerment and ownership. Questions to be asked,
again and again, are: Who is empowered and who disempowered? And, who gains and who
loses?
Fil: Chambers, Robert. University of Sussex, Estados Unidos