"Participation: From Tyranny to Transformation? is the first comprehensive attempt to evaluate the state of participatory approaches in the aftermath of the 'Tyranny' critique. It captures the recent convergence between participatory development and participatory governance, and spans the range of institutional actors involved in these appraches - the state, civil society and donor agencies. It places participatory interventions in a political context, and links them directly to issues of popular agency. The authors embed participation within contemporary advances in development theory and propose theoretical and practical ways forwards for relocating participation as a genuinely transformative approach."--Jacket.