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PRELIMINARY DATA
for researchers and mobilisers
Training Handout
First you need to find out pre-entry information.1
Before you first enter the community
in a public situation (researcher or mobiliser), you need to know several
things about the community.
This page suggests
various ways to obtain information.
It is a bit of a paradox that some
times even asking questions can result in your breaking local prohibitions,
but you need the answers to avoid breaking local
prohibitions.
By moving carefully, remembering
that you have twice as many ears as mouths, you can map out what behaviour
is acceptable, and take appropriate action.
The following are a
set of approaches you can adopt.
Try to meet people who are familiar
with the community, first those who are living outside the community, later
those who may be living there.
These include teachers, church, temple
or mosque leaders, regional or district governmental officials, extension
(health, agriculture) agents who visit the community.
Make notes.
Any of these might also direct you to
a person who has more intimate knowledge of the community and who can give
you guidance about acceptable protocol for your finding out more.
Before people get to learn that you
will visit a community, conduct a quick informal survey to determine critical
information that will affect your planning for entry to that
community.
Make notes.
Engage in casual conversations to
discover critical factors affecting community co-operation and
organising.
Try to find out, in casual conversations
and with a trusted informant, who the "hijacking politicians" are, those
who will try to control things for their own benefit.
Make notes.
When you meet persons that you feel
would be good informants, ask them to point out similar minded
persons.
Ask about local protocol,
for activities such as greetings, gifts, eating and praise.
Make notes.
These kinds of fact gathering activities
can complement previous, orthodox unobtrusive research, such as looking
at available census data, newspaper reports, library research and governmental
publications.
Later, if you are mobilising, you
will guide the community members through participatory appraisal to assess
current conditions, and the more you know about the community first, the
better you will be able to do that.
Footnote
1.
These guidelines do not all apply, of course, to those of you who are doing
research on your own family or community. One guideline always applies,
however: "make notes."
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2011.08.15
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