The Researcher: Getting to Know the Community
Community-based research is quite different from normal questionnaire-survey-focused researches. It entails a deeper understanding of the concepts involved, from the community itself to the role of the researcher. Before embarking on one, it always pays to know what you’re in for.
Who is the researcher?
In what could be a great class project idea for an English/Social Studies/Science class, community-based research first needs people who understand how to make a community move.
By move, it means mobilize. Community-based research must be relevant, since its very nature as a localized research project entails its results to be used to empower or strengthen communities. The mobilizer must understand the nature and behavior of communities to be effective.
Observation, analyses, idea-sharing, reading and information-gathering must be encouraged. It is not enough to simply go to a community and start asking questions about the lives of its inhabitants. One should understand its culture and inter-relationships if one wants analyses that matter.
What is a community?
Community does not refer only to the people who are in it, nor can it be easily contained in one neat package. It is a sociological concept, and has fuzzy boundaries. It can be within another community (a region or a nation), and it can move (nomadic herders, hunters, mobile fishing groups). Being interconnected is the common denominator of a community.
The best way, as the mobilizer, to analyze the community is to break it into different parts. In this case, there are six dimensions that can be used in community research: technological (capital or skills), economic (production and wealth), political (power and influence), institutional (social interaction), aesthetic-value (idea structure), and belief-conceptual (ideas about the nature of the universe).
Why community-based research? Why not?
This kind of research brings the researcher closer to real world conditions, bringing him or her much closer to the specific answers needed. It can be updated and can be kept confidential or distributed to the community who might need that information to initiate change.
The disadvantages include being extremely time-consuming to gather the information, and covering only a small sample of the community due to high costs.
What is the best way to interview?
Consider interviewees as possible partners who hold the information that can help solve the problem. Here are some tips and pointers when face to face with said possible partners.
- Blend in with the environment. Don’t wear fancy dresses in rural areas and do everything possible to minimize the “social distance” between the interviewer and interviewee.
- Respect gender relations, as well as age and culture differences. It is important to make them feel at ease so never show any disapproval on any answer received during the interview, and only listen and try to understand the reason for the answer.
- Be prepared before facing a particular sample of the community. This way, sincerity and understanding comes across easily, and the atmosphere becomes more relaxed and comfortable.
- Maintain eye contact, especially when discussing sensitive issues. Encourage interviewees by nodding or repeating the last few words. Remember that interviewees are taking time aside to share information, so don’t take it for granted.
- Lastly, write down answers immediately, without sacrificing relevant eye contact. If possible record the interview with their permission. Summarize the interview afterwards.
Sources:
Bartle, Phil. “What is community: a sociological perspective.” Retrieved September 10, 2008 from
http://www.scn.org/cmp/whatcom.htm
“Field research/primary market research.” Retrieved September 10, 2008 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_research
“Module 10B: Design of research instruments, interview guides and interview skills.” Retrieved September 10, 2008 from http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-56614-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html
(Published 22 September 2008, Smart Communications, Inc.)
