FROM CONTROL TO PARTICIPATION

Participation is necessary to address the concerns of both the sustainable livelihoods approach and the human rights approach. This is because complexities of development processes need to be understood in order to decide what is to be assessed, who is affected, why particular impacts are occurring, and how policy can be improved. Therefore, setting goals for sustainability is a question of values, and one which will require community participation at all levels of decision making.

At a deeper level, what is required is a shift from control to participation as a way of being in the world – a perspective that gives us a different understanding of the world, the wider cosmos, and our place in it. The practical relevance of this paradigm shift is the recognition that unless we learn to experience ourselves as part of the biosphere, and understand that we humans are participants in a wider community of beings, the attainment of sustainability is impossible. Therefore, it is essential to recognize that cooperation and adaptability, not competition, are essential to human survival.