This is a dual-purpose paper. On the one hand, it is intended to introduce a framework for participatory planning in rural energy. On the other, it provides a case study of rural energy planning, based on field work among the low-income "comuneros" of the semi-arid region of Coquimbo, in Chile. Both aspects refer to work carried out between 1982 and 1987, and neither of them is related to governmental efforts. They correspond to an autonomous initiative of the Energy Research Programme (PRIEN) of the Universidad de Chile, with the participation of the private Center for Environmental Research and Planning (CIPMA). Financing for this work came from the European Economic Communities, IDRC (Canada), SAREC (Sweden) and another international agency.
The planning aspects belong to a participatory approach to development planning, based on a social systems theory, that has been developed at PRIEN by the present author with the assistance of several colleagues (see references under Del Valle). This approach involves both concepts and methods. Concepts are intended to be few, powerful and feasible to be intuited from practice. Methods are practical and are not focussed on model building or similar analytical work; they are designed to initiate and sustain a participatory planning process, i.e. a process that, in our view, directly brings about development. The approach has been applied to different extents in a variety of social systems in developing countries: rural energy, regional energy, urban transport, housing, national environment, science and technology, health, information sciences and other.
The field-work aspects correspond to general research on rural energy issues in Chile (sources, uses, socio-economic relationships) and to subsequent action-oriented research in the communities of Coquimbo, with a major focus on fuelwood equipment but also including work on fuelwood resources, water supply and animal traction. Related work was also done in different geographical areas, on thermal improvement of rural housing and on solar drying of agricultural products (the latter in Peru). The planning approach provided guidance in the action-oriented phase; it was not yet available at the beginning.
The paper is necessarily synthetic and has three sections. The first one provides an overview of the main concepts and positions of the planning approach. The second, an introduction to its methodology. The third section reviews the Coquimbo experience by following the methodology phase by phase. The adequate comprehension of the text requires bearing in mind that this paper is not "final" in two respects: (1) the Coquimbo experience is still going on and has not yet reached the final phases of the planning methodology, and (2) research on planning is also under way, with active work on conceptual, methodological and empirical tasks.
