ABSTRACT

This paper presents an analysis of social mobilisation and community engagement in contexts where traditional relations of power are elite-based and exclusionary. Informed by contemporary critiques of community development, it takes the Pakistan-based Rural Support Programme Network’s (RSPN) “three-tier social mobilisation strategy” as a case study and asks whether and how it has transformed traditional relations of power. The study reveals that despite a strategic focus upon transforming community relations and reducing social inequities, RSPN’s specific mobilisation strategy, in practice, enables traditional elites to exploit newly formed community organisations in ways that reproduce traditional, exclusionary, elite-based relations of power.

摘要

本文介绍了在传统权力关系基于精英和排他性的情况下的社会动员和社区参与的分析。受到当代对社区发展的批评的影响，该报告以巴基斯坦农村支持计划网络（RSPN）的“三层社会动员战略”为案例研究，并询问它是否以及如何改变了传统的权力关系。该研究表明，尽管战略重点是转变社区关系和减少社会不平等，但RSPN的具体动员策略实际上使传统精英能够以再现传统的，排他的，基于精英的权力关系的方式利用新成立的社区组织。