Participation as Keeping Face against "The Other" (The Study of the Process and Structure of Participation in the Experience of Piped Water Supplying in Zilan Village)

Document Type : Research Paper

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Abstract

The subject of the research is to understand and study the social and cotextual backgrounds of participation in a developmental experience, that is, the process of supplying pipedwater from 6 klms away to Zilan Village in Javanrood Township. This study is run using qualitative methods, deep interview teqniques and observations and it is analyzed through ground theory. If a plannable action and the one influenced by specific factors such as education level, urbanization degree and mass media (Learner and Rodgers) is considered in a innovative interpretation of participation which facilitates developmental measures and if it is rejected and criticized in a post-developmental account, why the actors are viewed as passive subjects of development discourse. The findings of this research show that the essential concept of participation, its form and extent, and the results taken from it are the function of social acts and mutual interactions among the variables related to participation. Depending on needs, benefits, the social and official status, ethical and religion beliefs, different individuals have been able to influence the aspects of this phenomenon. The collective participation of the population under study was done to survive their life and identity. Furthermore, it was an attempt to keep face against the surrounding villages in the one hand and a sort of protest against the lack of an instant and timely measure by government officials on the other.

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