PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH IN THE MANAGEMENT OF TERRITORIAL DEVELOPMENT. INVESTIGATIONS IN LIVEZILE-RIMETEA MICRO-REGION (2001-2002 and 2007-2008)

The aim of this study is to present some important aspects of the way inwhich participatory research may contribute to the management of territorialdevelopment, through the identification of problems and development opportunities in agiven territory. We will first identify some epistemological and methodological aspectswhich regard participatory research as a means of action research. Next, we will upholdthe idea of restoring the scientific research results as an instrument for the constructionand promotion of local actors’ participation in the development processes. To this end wewill present extensively two series of research carried out in the Livezile-Rimetea micro-region (county of Alba, Romania), respectively the series of research between 2001-2002and 2007-2008. As a result of this research we identified and developed the methodologyof restoring of results through interviews or public debates, with a view to reinforcing thehuman support in the region under scrutiny.