Community_scoping
Community Scoping
One basic principle of qualitative research design is that the people being researched should be understood in their social context. This requires some means of understanding that context. This session is designed to provide some ways into this process.
Time 90 minutes
Objectives:
- to understand some strategies to start a process of getting to know the basic details about a community, a village (or part of one), or an urban neighbourhood. It could also be used (with suitable amendments) for people whose case study will be an organisation.
Preparation:
- A PowerPoint on Community Scoping is available to be used or amended if desired
- A Handout on Community Scoping can be used, and a Sample Household Census Form is available
- Flip chart and big markers (OR use someone sitting at a computer and typing in points raised so that they are shown on a projector)
Process:
This session can be conducted through a mixture of didactic (PowerPoint) and brainstorm approaches. The following areas should be discussed:
- Need for community scoping
- The processes of community scoping
- Participatory approaches (map-making, transect walks, wealth ranking)
- Household census (as basic source of data on community, to provide a sampling frame)
- The role and importance of 'gatekeepers'
Resources
The general field of participatory rural appraisal (PRA) methods has been developed since 1990, and there is a very large literature and many resources. For the purposes of this session we are only introducing some of the techniques that have been developed: the philosophy behind the approach should also be considered, if you want to go further down this route.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation have a web-page with descriptions and examples of PRA methods, oriented towards natural resource use: see http://www.fao.org/docrep/w7483e/w7483e0a.htm
There are several handbooks of PRA methods: one general introduction is at http://pcs.aed.org/manuals/cafs/handbook/sessions7-9.pdf and more detail on transect walks and other techniques at http://pcs.aed.org/manuals/cafs/handbook/sessions10-12.pdf
Singal, N., and Jeffery, R. (2008). Qualitative Research Skills Workshop: A Facilitator's Reference Manual, http://oer.educ.cam.ac.uk/wiki/RECOUP, Cambridge: RECOUP (Research Consortium on Educational Outcomes and Poverty, http://recoup.educ.cam.ac.uk/). CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. (original page)
