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This paper attempts to explain the process of women's empowerment and find out the levels of awareness creation, decision making, self and group empowerment among women from Self Help Groups formed under Comprehensive Community Development Programme implemented in five slum areas of Chennai.

New and experimental research methods to understand and co-steer processes of spatial transformation are called for. From the perspective of designing urban landscapes this paper draws a connection between Research through Design and transformative science. (Urban) landscapes constantly undergo (spatial) transformation, and not only have landscape architects always dealt with perpetual change, they increasingly often catalyze it. Designing is an integrative activity and the central means of the discipline to understand issues and draw up possible solutions. Furthermore, design often reaches out to other disciplines, involves multiple participants, and can be paradigm shifting. Research through Design is an increasingly acknowledged approach in landscape architectural research. With regard to the procedures, characteristics and goals of knowledge production, this paper presents commonalities between
Research through Design and transformative research, highlighting the integrative and projective nature of designing. In conclusion, I suggest positioning Research through Design among the methods of transformative research.

Development assistance often fails to achieve institutional change because of a limited consideration of the political nature of these reforms and the local context. In response, political and adaptive development assistance (PADA) approaches, such as "Thinking and Working Politically" (TWP) and "Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation" (PDIA), have been developed in recent years. Politicians, practitioners and researchers increasingly want to know if these approaches are more effective than mainstream approaches to development assistance. To answer this question, this paper develops a framework by asking three more specific questions about the "which", the "where" and the "what". First, for which types of development problems is political and adaptive development assistance likely to work better than mainstream approaches? Second, where or in which contexts might this be the case? And third, what contributions can be expected from these approaches including, but going beyond, effectiveness? Available evidence is used to answer these questions. This paper finds that political and adaptive approaches have comparative advantages over mainstream approaches when either the problem is complex, the context is hard to predict, or the solution is contentious. The overall conclusion is that development policy needs a broader variety of approaches from which to choose based on which fits the problem and the context best.

Meeting: Court of Women, 27-29 July, 2009, Bangalore, IN ; By placing the individual at the centre, new media promotes a version of participation that is commodified and conformist, where content democratization or plurality also means a coopted or controlled 'public'. Under the mask of multiplicity, there is a persistence of gender stereotypes and misogyny. The presentation deconstructs virtual reality and digital presence in terms of gender, and asks: What institutional frameworks are necessary to address the transnational corporate control of the media and public sphere?

Dieser Artikel beschäftigt sich mit der Frage, in welcher Weise gestalterische Methodenansätze in Forschung und Beratung genutzt werden können, um das Verständnis von sozialen Situationen zu vertiefen. Dabei gehen die Autorinnen davon aus, dass die hinter der "Gestalt" von Darstellungen liegende Bedeutung genutzt werden kann, um Erkenntnis zu generieren. Der vorliegende Artikel ist in Form eines Theaterstücks (Drehbuch) in 6 Akten geschrieben, in dem eine Gruppe von Wissenschaftler/innen und Berater/innen dialogisch versucht, ein gemeinsames theoretisches Verständnis unterschiedlicher gestalterischer Ansätze zu entwickeln und diese im Folgenden experimentell auf einen Praxisfall aus der Beratung zu übertragen. Am Ende reflektiert die Gruppe den Erkenntnisgewinn der eingesetzten Methoden. Die Autorinnen konstatieren, dass traditionell rationalistische Methodenansätze nur schwerlich in der Lage sind, zugrunde liegende – häufig unbewusste – Motive, Bedeutungen und Emotionen von sozialen Situationen zu explizieren. Gestalterische Methoden können dagegen Bedeutung und Verständnis jenseits von Kognition und Ratio zu entfalten helfen. Insbesondere ermöglichen kreative Zugänge, wie das Malen von Bildern, Metaphern, Rollenspiele oder Märchen, das Einnehmen unterschiedlicher Perspektiven auf soziale Situationen und generieren damit ein Verständnis auf einem höheren Niveau. Das Drehbuch endet mit praktischen Implikationen für die Aktionsforschung im Rahmen der Unternehmensberatung und -entwicklung.

Development assistance often fails to achieve institutional change because of a limited consideration of the political nature of these reforms and the local context. In response, political and adaptive development assistance (PADA) approaches, such as 'Thinking and Working Politically' (TWP) and 'Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation' (PDIA), have been developed in recent years. Politicians, practitioners and researchers increasingly want to know if these approaches are more effective than mainstream approaches to development assistance. To answer this question, this paper develops a framework by asking three more specific questions about the 'which', the 'where' and the 'what'. First, for which types of development problems is political and adaptive development assistance likely to work betterthan mainstream approaches? Second, where or in which contexts might this be the case? And third, what contributions can be expected from these approaches including, but going beyond, effectiveness? Available evidence is used to answer these questions. This paper finds that political and adaptive approaches have comparative advantages over mainstreamapproaches when either the problem is complex, the context is hard to predict, or the solution is contentious. The overall conclusion is that development policy needs a broader variety of approaches from which to choose based on which fits the problem and the context best.

Development assistance often fails to achieve institutional change because of a limited consideration of the political nature of these reforms and the local context. In response, political and adaptive development assistance (PADA) approaches, such as "Thinking and Working Politically" (TWP) and "Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation" (PDIA), have been developed in recent years. Politicians, practitioners and researchers increasingly want to know if these approaches are more effective than mainstream approaches to development assistance. To answer this question, this paper develops a framework by asking three more specific questions about the "which", the "where" and the "what". First, for which types of development problems is political and adaptive development assistance likely to work betterthan mainstream approaches? Second, where or in which contexts might this be the case? And third, what contributions can be expected from these approaches including, but going beyond, effectiveness? Available evidence is used to answer these questions. This paper finds that political and adaptive approaches have comparative advantages over mainstreamapproaches when either the problem is complex, the context is hard to predict, or the solution is contentious. The overall conclusion is that development policy needs a broader variety of approaches from which to choose based on which fits the problem and the context best.