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She argues that participation has become narrow and naïve and just seen as a “goodthing” and therefore stresses the need <strong>of</strong> getting away from narrow project approacheswhere there is a lack <strong>of</strong> clarity around who is to be empowered; the individual, thecommunity, the poor, the socially excluded or categories <strong>of</strong> people such as women.The same applies for what to be empowered in relation to; cash transfers, rights <strong>of</strong>resource access and level <strong>of</strong> control, right to participate in decision-making etc. Aslaid out participation can be summarised and viewed in terms <strong>of</strong> two overarchingtopics; institutionalism and model <strong>of</strong> individuals.2.3.7.1 InstitutionalismCleaver argues that discourses <strong>of</strong> participation have been strongly influenced by thenew institutionalism. Here participation is seen as fundamentally ensuring an efficientdelivery <strong>of</strong> development. This is interpreted as; allowing the exercise <strong>of</strong> sanctions fornon cooperation, reducing cheating and free riding, increasing cooperation and socialcapital, denoting initiative and responsibilities, securing good citizenship and politicalengagement, enhancing collective endeavours, creating a sense <strong>of</strong> ownership, and canin this respect be seen as empowerment. She puts forward five specific issues to takeinto consideration.Firstly, on Formalizing and functionalism, a point is made that although theimportance <strong>of</strong> informal and formal institutions is recognized in the literature,formalized institutional arrangements are seen as more robust than informal ones.Mentioning Ostroms´ model, her design principles are thus referred to as a way <strong>of</strong>“crafting” and formalize the institutions to create a more robust system (clearboundaries, formal rules and sanctions etc.). This then warrants that there is a goodunderstanding <strong>of</strong> the informal institutions which are to be formalized, and whenREDD is to be implemented, how well the newly established formal institutions fitthe already established norms and values for forest management will greatly affect theoutcome.Secondly, according to Cleaver there persists a Myth <strong>of</strong> community, where falsely acommunity is seen as unitary. There are strong assumptions that in any given situationthere is an identifiable community, in consistence within its own natural, social and53

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