| Abstract: | Development theories in the 1990s embrace a much more people-centred perspective than in previous decades. At the same time, foreign direct investment is increasingly being touted as a new form of development assistance, and transnational corporations as new aid agents. However, the ideology of the free market is incongruous with the people-centredness of contemporary development theory. The result is a polarisation between participatory development and market driven paradigms. This study introduced the models of instrumental and transformative participation and the way they influence information flow and communication. These models are used to examine a project proponent’s and stakeholder’s actions in a privatised development setting, using a Philippine case study. The case study is the Bohol-Cebu water supply project, a project of water capture, treatment, and transmission, linking the islands of Bohol and Cebu. Communication and information dissemination between the project proponent and stakeholders is viewed under the requirements of Philippine legislation for participation in development. The findings from this research suggest that the proponent tended to exclude or only partially include affected stakeholders in the development process. Sources of information were often nongovernmental organisations, the Church, and, in many instances, the media. The proponent’s method of disseminating information was primarily to target the municipal or provincial government level, thus disenfranchising the ‘grass roots’ |
