"This volume explores the strengths, weaknesses, and complex nature of participation in diverse settings through a collection of 20 essays that focus on the concept of participation in development and raise questions relating to power, control, empowerment, awareness-raising, and self-reliance. The editors assert that participation must be dialogic and transactional, and that development communicators have a role in facilitating the spread of new philosophies, concepts, and models, which facilitate participation at all stages of the development process. This volume is divided into sections on theories, methodologies, 'participatory decision-making and action' and 'participatory message making', and includes case studies." (Communication Initiative website Nov. 2007)