Exchange Workshop on Participatory Methods

From 2006 to 2009, there were several participatory methods coming to China, which were welcomed and used in different fields by Chinese people. These methods included open space, future search conference, appreciative inquiry, mediation and world café, etc. On the one hand, practitioners gained some experience; on the other hand, they also encountered some problems. In order to set up a platform for communication, China Association for NGO Cooperation (CANGO) cooperated with Shinning Stone Community Action (SSCA) to organize an Exchange Workshop on Participatory Methods in Beijing on November 18-19, 2009. The workshop was facilitated by Ms. Wang Xiangyi from CANGO and Ms. Wang Lu from SSCA. 44 participants from NGOs, communities, universities and companies attended the workshop.

At the opening session, Ms. Wang Xiangyi first introduced the purpose of the workshop and the participants. Mr. Zhao Daxing, Deputy Executive Director of CANGO, Ms. Song Qinghua, Director of SSCA and Mr. Wolfgang Meyer, Country Representative of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung gave welcome speeches. They expressed the recognition for the project achievements as well as the expectation for the continuous cooperation in the future.

The workshop consisted of the following three sessions: discussion on participatory methods, experts and practitioners experience sharing, interaction and summary. During the discussion session, all participants had a group discussion on the three topics below using world cafe: stories of experienced participatory methods, benefits and difficulties of participatory methods, expectations for this exchange workshop. An open space discussion on opportunities and challenges of using participatory methods followed after this discussion. During the experts and practitioners’ experience sharing session, experts focused on theory research and community practice provided research and opinion sharing from different points of view: Mr. Mark Pixley, Manager of LEADERSHIP INC, and Ms. Karen Lim, facilitator, introduced Facilitating Transformation in Crisis-A Case Study of Organizational Change in China; Ms. Song Qinghua, Director of SSCA shared practical experiences in using participatory methods; Ms. Li Yanyan, Professor Associate of Komasawa University, talked about her expectations for using participatory methods; Mr. Gu Jun, Professor of Shanghai University, analyzed the adaptation of open space to Chinese condition. Ms.Wu Min from Beijing Situozhe Education Information Consultation Centre shared open space and future search conference cases in Beijing; Mr. Wang Junzhi from Friends of Green Environment of Jiangsu shared appreciative inquiry cases in Nanjing; Ms. Li Xufang from SSCA shared the world café case in Nanluoguxiang Street, Beijing. After the sharing, all participants watched some activity videos, including open space in Beijing, appreciative inquiry in Nanjing, and training for women village heads in Inner Mongolia. During the interaction and summary session, all participants exchanged with the experts on the problems encountered during practice, and the development prospects of participatory methods.

All participants shared their feelings and exchanged experience during the two-day workshop. They expressed that they benefited a lot from the workshop, now understanding participatory methods more deeply, and having gained more capacity and skills for participatory methods facilitation.