Complex problems, negotiated solutions: tools to reduce conflict in community development, M. Warner. ITDG Publishing, London, 2001. ISBN 1853395323, £12.95 (paperback), x + 149 pp.

✍ Scribed by J. Pugh

• Book ID: 102450480
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 34 KB
• Volume: 13
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1085-3278
• DOI: 10.1002/ldr.491

✦ Synopsis

Warner's text provides a set of guidelines to address con¯icts in rural areas of developing countries. His work is aimed at the staff of international and national NGOs, advisers in donor agencies, government departments and private companies. Though this topic may seem ®rmly rooted in the ®eld of social science, the pertinence to land degradation should not be understated. Many examples abound of areas where land is presently degrading partly, or in some cases, largely, due to con¯ict within communities, or between community and government. The ongoing crisis of land redistribution in Zimbabwe is but one example of this, hopefully in this case transient, phenomenon.

This clearly written 15-chapter handbook adopts the general stance of many modern donor agencies and NGOs, taking managerialistic and ostensibly apolitical approaches to development in order to reach some ideal' consensus between different stakeholders. This is obviously representative of the wider communicative turn in development theory. As Flyvbjerg (2001) has recently pointed out such approaches have a tendency to ignore relationships of power. In this sense, Warner offers a plethora of techniques for managing what could be called homo democraticus, not seeming to fully appreciate human nature nor the complex relationships of power that characterize the development process. This general approach is widespread in the modern literature on participatory planning, which assumes that the force of the better argument' will win through, if only the technique follows the correct' communicative process. In this sense it is a good example of top-down/bottom-up' planning, facilitated by the development expert who uses a range of consensus-reaching techniques on behalf of the people.

After introducing the aims of the text in Chapter 1, Chapter 2, adhering to what has become the mantra of many development agencies and NGOs, states that `. . . consensus building explicitly sets out to avoid tradeoffs altogether, seeking to achieve a ``win±win'' outcome'. By Chapter 4, however, due to few examples there is little evidence that consensus-building works in practice. Indeed, Flyvbjerg (2001) has recently argued that such approaches often gloss over the real relationships of power that characterize development. In Chapter 5 Warner divides the consensus-building process into of®ce-based con¯ict analysis, participatory con¯ict analysis, capacity building, con¯ict management plans and consensual negotiation.

Despite the lack of detail in previous chapters, Chapter 6, covering of®ce-based analysis, is comprehensive, providing a useful checklist for understanding the context of a con¯ict. Training exercises are also provided throughout the text, making an effective addition. Chapter 7 turns to the produc-