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The research is being conducted in three villages of south-western and northern regions of Bangladesh, which have undergone a self-development process by capitalizing on the collective efforts of the poverty stricken villagers. These exemplary experiences provided the impetus and rationale to study those villages. The major objectives of the study are to analyse the socio-economic status of the three villages in terms of their achievements in utilizing people's collective efforts, to understand the process of capitalizing collective efforts, its development, application and barriers encountered in the process that constrained the upward spiral. To ensure the participation of local people at every stage of the exploration and in developing an action plan, the research process is following participatory action research (PAR) methodology where people-researchers are carrying out the whole research. The participants, with the facilitation of an external animator, will review and analyse the successes and failures of their development efforts undertaken so far in their respective villages. The people-researchers will extract valuable knowledge on development through making a comparative analysis among the villages. The strengths and weaknesses of the three villages will be exchanged for enriching the knowledge and minimizing the gaps. At the end of the research the collected information will be critically reviewed and validated by the villagers so as to ensure the people's ownership of the knowledge. The outcome of the research is expected to develop a people's report on the three villages, which might contribute as valuable knowledge on poverty alleviation and rural development for the rest of Bangladesh. The research is likely to highlight probable socio-economic and political pitfalls in the process of capitalizing and liberating people's potentials to development. Analytical review of the experiences of the three villages is expected to provide insights into potential routes to development and poverty alleviation in rural Bangladesh, since these villages have gone through a pragmatic experimentation in search of the routes.
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