Ethnographic Action Research

Jo TacchiQueensland University of Technology

EAR: Ethnographic Action Research

Combines three research approaches1. 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.

http://ear.findingavoice.org/

EAR: key features

• Embedded researcher• Ongoing• Social mobilisation• Research culture• Participatory• Action research cycle

Reflect Do

Plan

Observe

The Changing Communication Environment

• Vertical patterns of communication – from government to people

• Unipolar communication systems

• Few information sources

• Easy to control – for good (generating accurate information to large numbers of people) and ill (government control and censorship)

• Send a message

• Horizontal patterns of communication – from people to people

• Communication networks

• Many information sources

• Difficult to control – for good (more debate, increased voice, increased trust) and ill (more complex, issues of accuracy)

• Ask a question

Tra

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orks

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James Deane ‘The Context of Communication for Development, 2004’. http://www.communicationforsocialchange.org/pdf/roundtable.pdf

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.

ComEco1Subject: Firali33yo female householder

Location: Jhuwani, NepalDate: 24 March 2007

Communicative Ecologymapping

ComEco2

ComEco3

Consequences

Constraints Conditions /contexts

ICT innovation

Com

mun

icat

ive

ecol

ogy

of

ICT

for

Dev

elop

men

t inn

ovat

ions

Geography

Infrastructure

Economy

Community profile

Media

Religion

Politics

NGO/agency

Embedded research - challenges

• 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:– 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