Disaggregating Community through Social Analysis 1
Brigitta Bode, Social Development Coordinator. CARE Bangladesh
Why Social Analysis Matters !
Community level analyses seeks to disaggregate the notion ‘community’ to better
understand the social relations between women and men, rich and poor, poor and poor.2
Examples of relations include types of economic dependencies, and forms of exclusion
from decision making forums and/or social events. These relations are shaped by
historically conditioned social, political and economic structures, e.g. tribe / kin, forms of
governance, landownership patterns, as well as ideologies around gender, class,
ethnicity/ race. Structures and relations are perpetuated or challenged through practices.
Some practices, for example, actions that accept distinctions based on ethnicity, gender,
and class, reinforce notions of hierarchy, patriarchy, exploitation, and exclusion; whilst,
some practices, such as blockades of local government buildings, ‘foot dragging’ at
work, character assassinations of elites through gossip and rumors, challenge the status
quo. Making the connections between the larger environment (governance, dispute
arbitration, notions around family and marriage, etc.), the social relations between
actors, and key practices that sustain and / or challenge existing inequalities and
marginalization, allows field teams to gauge the ways in which powerful actors within
communities have acquired and maintain the political means to dominate social
processes. At the same time, it provides a sense of the potential ways through which
existing patterns of resource use and allocation, decision making, distribution of
development funds, can be questioned and re-negotiated.
Clarity about powerful actors, their strategies, the socially accepted institutions that
legitimate their practices, as well as how poor and marginalized members of society
negotiate key practices, will allow field teams to consider mobilization tactics that enable
the poor / women / ethnic / caste / religious minorities and groups to challenge these
institutions and actors in ways that are permissible within the local normative framework.
Institutions, whether informal (kin / tribe/ labor arrangements, dowry, dispute arbitration)
or formal (e.g. local governance practices) are flexible and have evolved over time,
adjusting to larger social changes.3 Viewing institutions, in the context of the larger
national political environment, as flexible social practices that are made and re-made to
adapt to a changing world, enables staff who are engaged with communities to consider
how the less powerful can, in collaboration with key powerful actors, question,
(re)negotiate, (re)mold, and ultimately transform institutional arrangements to improve
their lived conditions.
Where to Start
A first step in a community / village analysis is to consider ‘which’ community or clusters
of communities to study.
A power analysis of the locality4 that points to geographic
areas of social, economic and political marginalization or power should be the starting
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November 2007
Gender and class are crucial in all societies, yet religion, caste, and ethnicity can be equally
important, depending on the context. The social variables to be explored should be determined
by local teams.
3 Examples of larger social changes to which local institutions have adapted include devolution of
power to local governments, affirmative action programs (also called reservation schemes) to
ensure the participation of women and socially marginalized groups, influx of refugees, etc.
4 See this author’s folio on Power Analysis in the Context of Rights Based Programming.
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point to consider types of communities. The resource map that has been created to
point to power centers / intermediate communities / and marginalized communities
should be used to consider types of communities that include powerful actors and their
allies, and those without the presence of powerful actors. In South Asia, the latter tend
to be the poorest communities in terms of income, status, access to resources and
education. Given the absence of elites / gatekeepers in these communities, it is easier
to explore the causes of powerlessness and poverty, but also to mobilize the community
to engage in collective action. At the same time, studying the social dynamics within
power centers can provide important insights that may be helpful to understand better
the ways in which powerful actors influence norms and values around key institutions
(kin, family, marriage, dowry). The research team may wish to consider a comparative
perspective by studying a rich, intermediate and poor community.
A second step is to explore ‘what’ to study. The knowledge and experience of various
staff who are familiar with the community and its actors, the immediate locality, and
larger social, political and economic patterns, provides an important starting point. The
research team, with the assistance of local staff, should discuss the various social /
economic / political dimensions (kin / tribe, class, access to resources (land, water
bodies, forests, credit)) and entitlements (work, poverty alleviation schemes, etc.) that
mediate social relations. Studying these dynamics sheds light on the ability – or lack
thereof – of women and men from the poorest segments of society to engage in
sustainable livelihood strategies and participate meaningfully in key decision making
forums at various levels (village and household). 5 Once it has been decided which
areas of inquiry to focus on, a research plan can be outlined.
The sections that follow outline research methods and strategies that are appropriate to
the South Asian context and have provided CARE Bangladesh the basis for choice of
location, participatory identification of anti-poverty initiatives, mobilization strategies, and
elite engagement in poverty eradication.
Village Histories
History helps us to understand how things came to be and how key actors have
accumulated power and resources, how the powerful are linked to each other, and how
their power has operated in relation to larger social forces and subsequent changes.
This helps to form ideas of how to deal with elites in the future and provides an entrance
point to explore issues of justice, moral economy and gender relations. At the same
time, community histories help us to understand where people have come from and how
they relate to each other and how they might relate in the future.
A community history is constructed with elderly persons, with men and women working
in separate groups, from different parts of the community (neighborhoods) to create a
time line that captures defining moments, beginning with the first settlement of the
community. Through discussions, the facilitator writes cards that capture key internal
and external events that have had transformative effect (positive or negative) on the
community / locality. The facilitator moves from national history, such as independence,
land reform, a key government program that provided resources, an agricultural
extension program, and so on, to local history, a flood, a drought, in-migration of a
5
Ideally, if good facilitation skills are employed, this process can be done with various groups
within the village (women and marginalized groups) thereby involving the community in the
research design.
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particular group, establishment of a nearby bazaar or key infrastructure, NGO presence,
etc.
Once a time line is agreed upon, each event is discussed in terms of its impact on the
community and various groups. Issues to explore include changes in the level of
development or impoverishment, the emergence of new elites, changes in access and
/or control over resources, etc. The history (or various histories – e.g. women or
different ethnic groups may have alternative views of history, citing different events and
subsequent changes to their lives) can then be used to connect key changes to specific
actors or institutions (e.g. local government, mosque committee, dispute arbitration, the
powerless) and how actors have mediated / reacted / adapted to a particular set of
events. Equally important, a community history may provide important insights around
key actors, their allies and opponents within and beyond the community (see Power
Analysis and Empowerment Entry Points folio), and may point to the causes of and
potential ways to address factionalism and tensions within the community that may
create obstacles for future social mobilization. Finally, community histories may point to
strategies of the powerless when opportunities arise to challenge the status quo.
Class and Dependency Relations
Wealth or well-being analyses6 are fundamental to understand the community, its level
of poverty, how different people experience poverty and marginalization, as well as
relations between rich and poor and how these are structured. Well-being analysis is an
important participatory method that captures people’s perceptions of poverty and
identifies different classes and interest groups with whom problems and desired
activities can be explored. The facilitators work with small groups (ideally these are
broadly from the same economic background) to establish criteria that signify wealth,
intermediate status, and poverty. 7 Having collectively agreed on key criteria, the group
then discusses and decides on broad categories of well being that characterize the
community, for example rich, well off, middle, lower middle, poor, extreme poor. For
each category, the signifiers that have been established are identified and through
dialogue the group determines where each household in the community or neighborhood
fits into these categories. The outcome is a grouping that provides a snapshot of the
extent of poverty / wealth.
Well being analysis also provides a basis for exploring dependency relations between
groups and individuals. For instance, rich and well-off households provide work
opportunities through daily wage labor, sharecropping, and land leases, or loans in time
of crisis; at the same time, the middle may have arrangements with the poor around
grazing or share-rearing of livestock. Once the extent of these dynamics have been
established, a discussion around forms of remuneration and ‘bondedness’ can reveal
6
Wealth analysis (also called wealth ranking) focuses purely on economic aspects and seeks
information from each household regarding assets and income; well-being analysis (also called
well being grouping) places greater emphasis on social relations between households – the sale
of labor power, sharecropping in or out, and begging, but also captures food security.
7 In Bangladesh, for example, signifiers of wealth include land, good housing, business, money
lending, access to higher education, surplus production, top positions in key committees;
signifiers of intermediate status include annual food security, access to sharecropping, service
occupations, access to credit from state institutions, livestock; poverty signifiers include womenheaded households (divorced, abandoned ,or widowed), permanent indebtedness, borrowing at
high interest, periodic hunger, non-remunerated service at key social events, lack of clothing, sale
of labor power in low level positions (maid service, stone breaking, brick fields) and begging.
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important mechanisms of exploitation. In South Asia, it is not unusual for landlords to
advance loans in cash or kind and thereby restrict the freedom of the laborer to seek
other employment opportunities and at the same time, pay reduced wages to earn
(hidden) interest on loans; or demand unremunerated services, e.g. free labor at
weddings, funerals, and other social events. Addressing exploitative practices in
development interventions are one of the means through which poverty, marginalization
and exclusion can be mitigated (see this author’s folio on Empowerment Entry Points).
Kin
Understanding kin structure through genealogies is a helpful method to disaggregate the
community.8 A genealogy visually captures and simplifies kin relations. The first step is
to determine how many distinct kin groups reside in the community. The researchers
then interview senior men of each kin group to construct a genealogy (generational
chart), at the center of which is the most influential family who generally owns
considerable resources (within the context of the community), controls key decision
making bodies, and has important alliances with outside elites. The number of kin
groups within communities may vary, ranging from 1 to nearly a dozen. In Bangladesh,
we have observed that the greater the number of kin groups within a community, the
more diffused power operates, with each kin clan having a leader, or group of leaders,
who may set norms around notions of honor (often defined through women’s behavior),
status, and legality. In communities, with 1 or 2 kin groups, political power and wealth
tend to be more concentrated and labor contracts tend to be more exploitative. At the
same time, we have observed that in recently settled communities who were founded by
displaced households (through floods, war, local conflict), kin affiliation plays an
insignificant role, as each kin group is too small and too poor to exert influence.
A completed genealogy can be used to superimpose class, NGO membership, and
committee membership (local governance bodies, mosque, school, bazaar committee)
and access to government entitlement schemes, to gain a sense of how resources (land,
businesses, etc), political power, and access to development schemes are distributed
across one or more kin groups. Such an analysis can reveal important patron-client
relationships that are not otherwise apparent, yet may explain why certain people are
continuously excluded from government rations, access to land schemes, employment
opportunities, etc. NGO that ‘enter’ communities through gatekeepers (by asking
permission and support for their activities) may favor dominant families, and exclude
smaller, marginalized kin groups from their activities.
.
Gender Dynamics
Relations between women and men and the institutional arrangements (e.g. family and
marriage) and practices (e.g. seclusion, girls’ access to education) can be explored
through various exercises. The genealogies and well being analyses provide discrete
categories of households (kin group A, B, C and rich, well off, middle, poor) from which
sample households can be selected to ensure representation of women from each kin
8
In South Asia, most societies are patrilineal and patrilocal. This means that these communities
trace descent along male lines and that women leave their natal homes to reside with their
husbands. In many of the northern regions of South Asia (including Pakistan, many parts of
India, Nepal, and Bangladesh), men’s honor and status within kin groups are linked to women’s
conduct. In this context, restrictions on women’s mobility removes them from the public gaze and
their ability to interact with non-affinal men and reduces the chances of ‘inappropriate conduct’
that could negatively impact the reputation of the kin group.
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group and class. Age, religion, composition of household (nuclear, extended, joint), are
also important variables to be considered, depending on the local context.
A simple and useful method to explore gender inequalities is the gender and
socialization exercise. The exercise is set up by exploring key stages of girls and boys
lives. For instance, in South Asia, relevant categories to study between the ages of 0-6
include birth rituals and celebrations, behavior / showing emotions, food distribution,
from 6-12, the division of labor, mobility, and school attendance, and from 12-14 (girls)
and 12-20 (boys) education, resource allocation, and preparation for marriage (including
dowry). Men and women (from different households), representing the various
groupings that have been established in the genealogies (by kin group) and well being
analysis (by class), are interviewed separately to identify the different ways in which
parents bring up boys and girls, the consequences of these inequalities, and how things
have changed and continue to change. Exploring the differences between kin groups
and classes, or members of different religions or ethnic groups, can point to the ways in
which gender is mediated by class, kin, religion, and ethnicity. These responses can
then be analyzed to illustrate how gender inequalities are socially embedded in
socialization processes and provide a good starting point for discussion about the basis
of these differences, outcomes and possible changes.
Managing the Research
The research coordinator(s) should either have experience in the region or commission
or undertake a literature review that discusses the social dynamics of rural communities.
This will provide a basis to discuss key social variables and the larger political economy,
including historical events and work up areas of inquiry to be pursued. The research
team, which ideally consists of an equal number of women and men, with at least 2 staff
that are familiar with locality and have a rapport in the community, can then negotiate, in
the context of the research objectives, which research streams to explore and methods
to apply.
It is essential to set aside a sufficient number of days for workshops to discuss the
overall study, areas of research, and methods, as well as mock sessions in which each
method is practiced, critiqued and improved upon through discussions around potential
difficulties, biases, challenges. This should involve the entire research team. Assessing
the team’s existing knowledge of the locality, as well as the methods to be used is a
fundamental step. This helps to decide which exercise should be conducted by whom.
The actual research should be iterative. For instance the community histories
constructed with various individuals from the community will highlight important events
and changes that the researcher may wish to explore in more detail. The genealogies
and well being analysis may point to key individuals that reside outside of the
community, who hold sharecropping contracts, lend money, or provide employment
opportunities to a large number of people. These individuals should be visited and
interviewed to discuss their income strategies and their role in political bodies and key
committees to ascertain the extent of their economic and political power in their own and
other communities. At the same time, most of the findings of the exercises that have
been discussed can be visually displayed (historical time line, genealogy, well being
analysis, dependency relations charts) and it is important to make connections between
the findings and try to understand how kin and class intersect, which families from which
kin group employ labor / loan money / enter into sharecropping contracts, with
households from which clan, etc. Meanwhile, the gender analysis, should be discussed
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within the context of the kin and class analysis to consider any differences among kin
groups / or classes in terms of the socialization of girls and boys.
Helpful Resources
For village level social analysis, methods, and visual illustrations of the analytical tools
discussed above, see
Bode, B. and M. Howes. 2002. The Northwest Institutional Analysis. Dhaka: CARE
Bangladesh.
CARE Social Development Unit. 2003. Social Capital in Rural Dinajpur. Dhaka: CARE
Bangladesh.
CARE Social Development Unit. 2006. Nijeder Janyia Nijera: Community Led
Development in Adhikara Para. Dhaka: CARE Bangladesh.
CARE Social Development Unit, 2005. Nijeder Janyia Nijera: Community Led
Development in Mankira Para and Beyond. Dhaka: CARE Bangladesh.
CARE Social Development Unit with Kamal Kar. 2005. Building Solidarity Through
Collective Action: A Process Reconstruction. Dhaka: CARE Bangladesh.
Howes, M. 2003. The Northwest Institutional Analysis: Methodology. Dhaka: CARE
Bangladesh.
Kanji, N., B. Bode and A. Haq. 2005. Women’s Empowerment: Perceptions, Boundaries
and Strategies in Jalagari Village, N.W. Bangladesh. Dhaka: Bangladesh.
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