摘要：The present contribution is placed in the frame of international research project (Italy, Brazil, Cuba, Guatemala, Nicaragua) that, from 2006 until 2010 with the involvement of ten Universities, developed the elaboration and the application of interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological models for the analysis and the valorization of human capital and territorial patrimony for the endogenous sustainable development.In the Project, the appeal to heuristic methodologies, for experiences’ analysis, has allowed to individualize interpretative categories that can represent criterions for transfer and dissemination of the research outputs.The dimension of “participation” appears surely an interesting category, especially if it is in relationship to the idea of development of the communities and the subjects.The contribution, further to a theoretical-methodological reflection on the “participation”, introduces the analysis of a research experience in the Mayan communities of Guatemala.
