Ethnographic Action Research
Jo Tacchi
Queensland University of Technology
EAR: Ethnographic Action Research
Combines three research approaches
1. ETHNOGRAPHY: traditionally used to understand
different cultures in detail. It is long term and requires
researcher to be embedded in local cultures.
2. PARTICIPATORY TECHNIQUES help both researchers
and participants understand complex issues in an
inclusive and participatory manner.
3. ACTION RESEARCH used to bring about new activities
through new understandings of situations.
EAR: key features
Plan
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Embedded researcher
Ongoing
Social mobilisation
Research culture
Participatory
Action research cycle
Reflect
Do
Observe
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Vertical patterns of
communication – from
government to people
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Horizontal patterns of
communication – from people
to people
•
Unipolar communication
systems
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Communication networks
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Few information sources
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Many information sources
•
Easy to control – for good
(generating accurate
information to large numbers
of people) and ill
(government control and
censorship)
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Difficult to control – for good
(more debate, increased
voice, increased trust) and ill
(more complex, issues of
accuracy)
•
Send a message
•
Ask a question
James Deane ‘The Context of Communication for Development, 2004’.
http://www.communicationforsocialchange.org/pdf/roundtable.pdf
Training workshop, Lapulu
The Changing Communication Environment
Communicative ecologies approach
• Reflects ‘ethnographic’ goal of holism, importance of
context
• Tool for grounding everyday communication
• Assumes ICT joins pre-existing communication systems
beyond mass / community media
• Transport infrastructure
– roads, buses, trains
• Social communication practices
– public and private gossip
• Local people often do not use or think about an
individual medium in isolation from other media
• Communication takes place within an existing
‘communicative ecology’ specific to each
community/group/place… culture …
Hearn, G., Tacchi, J., Foth, M., & Lennie, J. (2009). Action Research and New
Media: Concepts, Methods and Cases. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
Subject:
Firali
ComEco1
33yo female householder
Location: Jhuwani, Nepal
Date:
24 March 2007
Communicative Ecology
mapping
ComEco2
ComEco3
Communicative ecology of
ICT for Development innovations
Infrastructure
Geography
Economy
Conditions /
contexts
Constraints
Community
profile
ICT innovation
Media
Consequences
Religion
NGO/agency
Politics
Embedded research - challenges
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Organisational flexibility
Hierarchies of knowledge
Perceptions of research
Difficulties in developing a research
culture
• Breaking the cycle
• M&E and impact assessment
Assessing communication for social change:
a new agenda in impact assessment
• Equal Access Nepal – communication for social
change
• Radio programs and outreach
• Participatory impact assessment
• Adapting EAR as an embedded methodology in
the organisation
• Participation at many levels – content, M&E,
communities, managers, partners, stakeholders
• Community Researchers
the ‘prove:improve’ dichotomy
existing M&E practices are often top-down and
donor-driven, and based on pressures to
‘prove’ impacts, rather than bottom up,
participatory and based on ‘improving’
programs in ways that meet community needs
and aspirations
Lennie et al (2008) ‘Challenges, issues and contradictions in a
participatory impact assessment project in Nepal’ AES conference paper
presented in Perth, Western Australia, September 2008
Sankar, M. & Williams, B. (2008). Editorial – Evaluation matters. In
Williams, B. and Sankar, M. (Eds.). Evaluation South Asia. (pp.1-3).
Kathmandu: UNICEF.
Challenges, issues and contradictions
• Communication for social change (CFSC)
approach seeks to ground communication
activities in local realities (not top down)
• This is where meaningful social change happens
• Micro-level data, national initiatives
• Community-based research/ers in case study
sites
• Setting up appropriate systems and processes
extremely difficult…
Challenges, issues and contradictions
• Evaluation capacity building considered
important but has a number of recognised
problems, including:
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Organisational culture, dynamics and context
Development of a wide range of skills
Expectations of funding agencies
Need for good quality data and data systems
Loss of champions and key staff
Communication and evaluation language issues
Differences in power, knowledge and status
Feedback mechanisms
Literacy and language issues
Time, energy and resources
Challenges, issues and contradictions
• Evaluation capacity building considered
important but has a number of recognised
problems, including:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Organisational culture, dynamics and context
Development of a wide range of skills
Expectations of funding agencies
Need for good quality data and data systems
Loss of champions and key staff
Communication and evaluation language issues
Differences in power, knowledge and status
Feedback mechanisms
Literacy and language issues
Time, energy and resources