This title was first published in 2003. Until recently, planning and development in the Caribbean have been "top-down", "centre-out" and "expert-led". For a few years now, though, the region has bowed to the global trend and has experimented with participatory planning methods. Participatory planning is heralded by much of the development community as the most appropriate alternative strategy to the traditional approaches. In this volume, a range of experts drawn from the Caribbean, the United Kingdom and the United States review the current achievements and future prospects for genuinely participative planning in the Caribbean region at the beginning of the 21st Century.

Participatory planning in the Caribbean - some key themes, Jonathan Pugh and Robert B. Potter; Participation or containment? Insights from the planning of protected areas in Belize, Roger Few; Fishing for consensus - community-based conservation and conflict in St Lucia's Soufriere marine management area, Carolyn Trist; Participatory and collaborative planning in "Special Period" Cuba, Andrea Colantonio and Robert B. Potter; Capacity building for urban poverty reduction - the Pinelands creative workshop, Barbados, Mark Pelling; A consideration of some of the sociological mechanisms shaping the adoption of participatory planning in Barbados, Jonathan Pugh; Gender relations and conflict management in inner-city communities in Jamaica - the importance of community participation, Wilma Bailey, Clement Branche and Aldrie Henry-Lee; Participatory development and indigenous communities in the Mexican Caribbean, Janet Henshall Momsen.