This paper explores the contribution that geographers can make to debates about the nature and utility of participatory approaches. It argues for a constructive reconciliation between these approaches and the growing poststructural critique of participation. Through an examination of the similarities and entanglements between power and empowerment it highlights the centrality of geographical issues to understanding how participation works and how its resources might be distanciated beyond the arenas of participatory projects to produce empowering effects elsewhere.
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