Participation Power and Social Change
The Participation, Power and Social Change (PPSC) team at IDS works in partnership with diverse collaborators from around the world to generate ideas and action for social change.
Citizens and their organisations, policymakers, development workers and researchers are increasingly appreciating that standard recipes for managing the complexity of our inter-connected world have not worked.
Through research, innovation and learning in rights-based and participatory approaches, we work with people to identify and implement alternative approaches to social change that respond to local situations and bridge operational practice with research and policy change. We have worked, learnt and shared with those directly suffering from and combating discrimination and injustice; with those championing change from within powerful organizations and networks and, through our collaborative teaching and training programmes with the next generation of activists, policymakers and researchers.
Over the last fifteen years, we have established a reputation for our work on methods for strengthening participation and on expanding participation in public policies, development initiatives and governance processes.
Much of our recent work, has shifted towards exploring the conditions that enable individuals and organized groups to imagine their world differently and to realize that vision by changing the relations of power that have sustained injustices. We have moved beyond a linear model of 'research to policy to practice', embedding research within inclusive processes of social and institutional learning and change. How we work is inseparable from what we work on. We pay attention to methodological plurality, the ethics of power in relationships and to strengthening the capacities of a diversity of actors.
Our team has developed a unique identity. Straddling the worlds of grass-roots practice, development policy making and academia we help connect and add value to those working for more sustainable and just societies from diverse perspectives and locations.
In 2004 we established an MA in Participation, Power and Social Change that enables practitioners to explore how they can become more effective in promoting inclusive development and change in different situations. Among others, international development organisations draw on our diverse experiences from policy, practice and grass-roots engagement to support their own efforts to reduce poverty and secure the realization of rights.
The PPSC team’s research work is currently organised around four main thematic clusters:
- Particiation, power and politics
- Participatory methodologies
- Sexuality and development
- Gender justice
For general enquiries please email ppsc@ids.ac.uk
Key contacts
Team Members
Food Riots and Food Rights
The objective of this research is to improve the prospects for accountability for food security at a time of volatility. This will be achieved through an exploration of the proposition that recent popular mobilisation around food has activated public accountability for hunger. More details
Labour Regulations and Anti-discrimination Legislation
A review of literature on the impact of labour regulations and anti-discrimination legislation on gender quality in employment in developing countries. More details
Pathways of Women's Empowerment Research Programme Consortium
International research and communications programme finding out what works to enhance women’s empowerment More details
Accountability at Local Level in Fragile Contexts
This collaborative project between IDS and HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation (HSI) was designed to contribute to learning on accountability initiatives in fragile contexts by exploring the dynamics and enabling factors within three ongoing accountability projects. More details
Assessing Social Change
Exploring the opportunities and challenges for assessing and learning about social change More details
Citizens' Media and Participatory Communication
A scoping study of the role and potential of participatory communication practices across a diverse spectrum of research programmes. More details
Critical Research Social Justice and International Aid
Seminar series for inter-disciplinary discussions on the relationship between research, aid and social justice More details
Development Research Centre on Citizenship, Participation and Accountability
Exploring approaches that work to strengthen rights and meaningful citizenship for poor people More details
Facilitating Learning and Action for Social Change
Initiative to facilitate effective learning for social change through a better understanding of theory, experience and practice of reflection and learning More details
Food Riots and Food Rights
The objective of this research is to improve the prospects for accountability for food security at a time of volatility. This will be achieved through an exploration of the proposition that recent popular mobilisation around food has activated public accountability for hunger. More details
Immersions for Aid Practitioners
Promoting and developing immersions as a practical training method for people working in international development More details
LogoLink, the Learning Initiative
A global network of practitioners from civil society organisations, research institutions and governments created to stimulate and support civil society organisations and networks to engage in citizen participation and social control of public policies at the local level. More details
Making all Voices Count: A Grant Challenge for Development (MACV)
Making All Voices Count: A Grand Challenge for Development (MAVC) is a four-year $45 million fund to support innovation, scaling-up, and research that will deepen existing innovations and help harness new technologies to enable citizen engagement and government responsiveness. More details
Participate: Knowledge from the margins for post-2015
Ensuring that the most vulnerable and marginalised communities have the opportunity to shape post-2015 policymaking More details
Participation Resource Centre
Practical and theoretical resources on participation from around the world, including participatory methods, approaches and critiques More details
Participation and Development Relations
Promoting a rights perspective to the challenges of poverty, inequality and insecurity. More details
Participation and National Policy
Citizen engagement with the state and the formation of national policies More details
Participatory Approaches to Quality Assurance
This collaboration between IDS and the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) aims to bring appropriate participatory methods into quality assurance within SDC. It will also bring new levels of rigour to the principles of participation, poverty orientation and empowerment in the work of SDC and its partners. More details
Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) and Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) related Familiarisation Workshops
Series of short workshops for participants wishing to get a taste of PRA and PLA approaches More details
Pathways of Women's Empowerment Research Programme Consortium
International research and communications programme finding out what works to enhance women’s empowerment More details
Reflective Practice and Organisational Learning and Change
Deepening individual and collective self-awareness of how our knowledge and values shape our relationships with others More details
Sharing Lessons, Improving Practice: Maximising the Potential of Community-Led Total Sanitation
CLTS is an innovative methodology for mobilising communities to completely eliminate open defecation (OD). More details
Big International NGOs
Exploring power and relationships with BINGOs More details
Food Riots and Food Rights
The objective of this research is to improve the prospects for accountability for food security at a time of volatility. This will be achieved through an exploration of the proposition that recent popular mobilisation around food has activated public accountability for hunger. More details
Participation and Development Relations
Promoting a rights perspective to the challenges of poverty, inequality and insecurity. More details
Pathways of Women's Empowerment Research Programme Consortium
International research and communications programme finding out what works to enhance women’s empowerment More details
Powercube: Understanding power for social change
The powercube is an innovative conceptual tool used for understanding and analysing power in processes of governance, in organizations, and in social relationships More details
The Big Push Forward
The Big Push Forward is an informal network of practitioners, creating the space for discussion, debate and the exploration of appropriate approaches for assessing transformative development processes. More details
Pathways of Women's Empowerment Research Programme Consortium
International research and communications programme finding out what works to enhance women’s empowerment More details
Sexuality and Development
This programme will produce evidence-based, practical options for activists and policymakers for strengthening legal protection of LGBTIQ people and sexuality rights. More details
Sexuality and Development Programme (2007-11)
Supporting the realisation of sexual rights and access to basic services for those facing poverty and injustice More details
Food Riots and Food Rights
The objective of this research is to improve the prospects for accountability for food security at a time of volatility. This will be achieved through an exploration of the proposition that recent popular mobilisation around food has activated public accountability for hunger. More details
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