Module 1 Participation as a strategy for the development of Local, Inclusive and Collaborative learning communities

It is common to take for granted that the concept of participation, such as solidarity or cooperation, has a predetermined content that guarantees a positive or valuable contribution to the person or society as a whole. But in itself, it only includes an attitude or a commitment to a certain objective and to the techniques, dynamics and interactions or interpersonal relationships that have to be given for its development and achievement of its objectives. Objectives and interactions that do not have to end up responding to a purpose of building a solidarity or inclusive collective project. On the contrary, the different formulas or models in which participation moves are still conditioned by a cultural, ideological, etc. paradigm of a predominant group or approach that ends up determining the transforming capacity that we naturally attribute to participation.

For this reason, when talking about participation, when designing and formulating strategies and programs that promotes it, it is important to take into account what development (social and community) is and under what paradigm of participation we are moving.