This book tells the story of development studies in practice over the last fifty years through the work of one remarkable individual, Robert Chambers.

Andrea Cornwall is Professor of Anthropology and Development in the School of Global Studies at the University of Sussex. She is director of the DFID-funded research programme consortium Pathways of Women's Empowerment, and works on the anthropology of democracy, gender and sexualities.

Ian Scoones is co-director of the ESRC STEPS Centre at the University of Sussex and joint convenor of the IDS-hosted Future Agricultures Consortium. He is an agricultural ecologist by original training whose interdisciplinary research links the natural and social sciences.

Notes on Contributors. Acknowledgements. Acronyms. Robert Chambers. Putting the Last First: Reflections on the Work of Robert Chambers. Conceptualising Development. Challenging Development Priorities. Beginners in Africa: Managing Rural Development. The Path from Managerialism to Participation: The Kenyan Special Rural Development Programme. Foxes and Hedgehogs - and Lions: Whose Reality Prevails? Participation in International Aid. Power and Participation. Reframing Development. Rural Development, Poverty and Livelihoods - Exploring Sustainable Livelihoods. Putting the Vulnerable First. Seasonality: Uncovering the Obvious and Implementing the Complex. Refugee Studies. Farmer First: Reversals for Agricultural Research. Agricultural Development: Parsimonious Paradigms. In Search of a Water Revolution: Canal Irrigation Management. The Last Frontier: The Groundwater Revolution in South Asia. Trees as Assets: Legacies and Lessons. Finding a Sustainable Sanitation Solution: Scaling up Community-Led Total Sanitation. Technology and Markets. Methodological Innovations Village Studies. Whose Knowledge Counts? Tales of an Eclectic Participatory Pluralist. Learning to Unlearn: Creating a Virtuous Learning Cycle. The Use of Participatory Methods to Study Natural Resources. Participatory Numbers. Practising Development: New Professionalism. The Personal and the Political. International Poverty Professionals and Poverty. Changing Attitudes and Behaviour. Networking: Building a Global Movement for PRA and other Participatory Methods. Institutional Learning and Change. Participation, Learning and Accountability: The Role of the Activist Academic. Development Professionalism. Appreciation and Reflections. Appendix. List of Robert Chambers' Publications. References. Index