Social Analysis and Community Politics

This course provides a guide to the processes and methods of social research, with emphasis on qualitative rather than quantitative research, and on the kinds of research questions and environments that researchers are liable to encounter in development work. The research process can be considered to be divided into four phases: Formulating Research Questions (and dealing with research requests), Gathering Data, Analysing Data, and Writing Up. This course focuses especially on the Gathering Data phase. We will explore, and pay critical attention to, certain 'rapid assessment' methods and tools that have become standard in many kinds of development work in the last two to three decades. These tools are used to map or document the varied relationships between members of local communities and their environmental, social and cultural resources. We will explore the concept of 'participation' that underlies those tools. We will consider differences and similarities between these participatory development tools and standard anthropological methods. Throughout, we will keep in mind questions of research ethics, kinds of knowledge and observation, and the politics, conflicts and dynamics of research with and within local communities.