Awareness-raising as community development : Theory, case study and innovation in Myanmar

Effective community development empowers the marginalized, powerless and poor to achieve a better life and higher level of well-being for themselves, in the context of a 'community' or social group. Brazilian educator Paulo Freire's idea of “conscientization”' or critical awareness-raising, proposes that this can be best achieved by facilitating the poor to become aware of the social, political and economic contradictions behind their poverty, and gaining the agency to take action against the oppressive and dehumanising elements of that reality. This chapter explores this concept of critical awareness-raising in some detail, locating it within the history of political thought, political philosophy and development practice, before exploring the ActionAid Myanmar “Change Maker” Fellows programme as a contemporary case study of the implementation of such community development. The case study analyses the reasons for this programme’s success, considering contextual factors and local innovations in some detail. The programme is found to successfully combine Freirian processes with participatory development, a capability agenda and a rights-based approach which emphasises active citizenship. It is argued that while Freire's critical awareness-raising builds on the theoretical ideas of Marx and Gramsci, the ActionAid programme has moved from purely Freirian conceptions to also include elements in keeping with the ideas of the likes of Rousseau (1762) and Habermas (1989, 1991). Of particular significance is the development of civil society and the public sphere, setting the scene for informed rational public debate to counterbalance authoritarian power, the co-option of authorities by redefining their legitimacy and using civil society debate in the public sphere to begin redefining the ‘social contract’. It is also suggested that critical awareness-raising has the greatest traction in an environment in which elite-led political transition is also demanding officials become more responsive to local communities’ needs, and that it is essential that community-led development be supported by local, regional and national policy makers to address oppressive structural policy barriers and expand the space within which the poor can discover their agency.