6 minute read
Fieldwork Conclusions
Potentials for Future Study
As the fieldwork period was only two months, many issues opened before us that could not be addressed while we were there. Further, after returning to Norway, the reflections of the class have brought a deeper perspective to the experience, making us aware of areas where further research is possible.
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Of the many issues found in Sawal Bahal, several demonstrate only a small part of much larger problems in Kathmandu and in Nepal as a whole. Many of these issues should be studied in a larger context to find possibilities for solutions. These issues from the larger context include:
Local Governance Education Construction and Earthquake Risk Open Space Water Supply Sustainability and Pollution
At the local level, after seeing the problems in Sawal Bahal, and similar trends in Kankeshwori - a better understanding of migrants rights in Nepal could help us to realize the potential for upgradation of their livelihoods. Overall, finding additional methods to improve the education of all children, and to encourage all children (and parents of all children) to complete their studies could create notable change in this regard. Not only should the school facilities be physically upgraded, but the education system should be examined in full to fill in gaps and increase the standards set across the board.
While we found legal difficulties in broaching the topic of ownership of the vacant land in Sawal Bahal, it does leave open potential for further study and aid to the community. More focused research on the current ownership could be done and a community driven usage plan for the land could be explored. Finding a sustainable way to use the land - socially, ecologically, and economically, could greatly benefit Sawal Bahal. Business plans could be worked out so that the community could run a small enterprise and profit from land use, while social needs and inclusivity could be encouraged through communal use and maintenance of the land.
The concept of starting a day care center was another late thought which could be further worked out as a business model. Teaching the women of this area, not only work skills, but entrepreneurial skills, could prove useful in strengthening the biggest population of traditionally slighted - low caste women. Again, this project should be approached as self sustaining to avoid making the community any further dependant on outside aid. It should be remembered that as students we have the potential to teach the community how to strengthen and support themselves, however they should not be taught to rely on us.
Kathmandu Group Report - Fall 2009
Fieldwork Reflections
One important aspect of planning is to reflect on the lessons learnt. It includes what was learnt by doing, but also what was learnt by what we could have done differently.
When considering the outcome of the survey work, which took most of our time, it would have been interesting to look more into the social capital of Sawal Bahal; local knowledge and skills that could contribute to more creative, locally inspired projects for implementation. One noteworthy discovery made during this work was the obvious challenge of the language barrier. We did, thankfully, have three Nepali students and one assistant teacher who did most of the translation work during the two months in Kathmandu. However there is always the risk of information being lost in translation through the individual interpretation, and also information lost after this, in the sharing of acquired knowledge between members of our class. We too had language and cultural “ barriers “ internally, being such a multinational group of students. Having that said, this was an enriching factor in the fieldwork and I think we all learned a lot about communication in general.
When it comes to successful approaches, it turned out that one of the most constructive, and also the most intuitive, methods was simply the improvised dialogue with the people, building trust-relations and asking open questions. This we could have started earlier in the process, so that the community meetings could have found place in the beginning of the research, rather than half way through. In addition we could have used our observations as a basis for questions more actively, in order to dig deeper into the workings of the community.
There was a challenge for the community people, the way we were posing such open questions, like “What do you want or need? “. As we experienced, at both the women meeting and with the teachers, they did not know or could not answer straight away on exactly what they want or need. With this question there is also the possibility that the response might be, unspoken or not: “What can we have?“. This is of course a legitimate question as they most likely would want to maximize their own profit of our contribution, and yet it might lead them to not answer truthfully, but more saying what they think we want to hear. These issues are quite difficult to resolve and maybe there is no appropriate method for ensuring a “correct“ interpretation. One last thing we could have done differently, looking back, was to
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include people more in the process rather than noting down their views and opinions, and then working it out by ourselves, finally proposing to them a finished project.
By finally directly dealing with, and supporting, representatives of certain CBOs, involving only the Maoist Dyolas, questions may be raised that our work might have contributed to reinforcing the existing power structures. Our limits of time and exposure to the inner workings of the community organizations prohibited us from fully understanding the internal power relations of Sawal Bahal, and therefore what consequences our support would bring to the community as a whole. While it is our hope that our implementation benefit as many of the people as possible, regardless of group belonging, it is difficult to determine the extent of exclusion practiced by the local community group we worked with.
There are also the methods that we could have brought into the work, like mapping exercises with the people for locating resources and hazards and learning directly from them; as we did already have maps of the area, but only used them as a means of overview for the houses surveyed. This could have involved the community more closely in our research and broken down the “ us “ and “ them “ barrier further. Another method, not fully explored, is the concept of role play for “building awareness of needs and desires” (Hamdi, 1997). This could highlight social roles for the people themselves. We could have had the men playing the role of the women, so they might consider, more seriously, supporting the idea of a day-care centre for example.
It could have been interesting to try a more action based approach, as promoted by Hamdi and other articles in our compendiums. With the slogan “Don’t think so much before start doing and don’t do so much before start thinking” (Karki, 2009), we could have tried to carry out some minor projects early in the fieldwork and analyzing the response. There is a common challenge in engaging locals in fieldwork that we encountered at the end of the process; the risk of raising people’s expectations through community meetings, by having them tell us what they wish for, with no certainty that it will come true, as we are forced to work within constraints of feasibility. In the end, we felt that we did face some skepticism and annoyance at our presence, as to what we are doing in Sawal Bahal, because of the duration of time we spent there mostly asking questions and talking, without actually bringing about physical, visible change in the community. This might also be related to their past experiences with other groups coming into their community, doing their research and then going, leaving nothing behind.
In the end, the fieldwork as a whole, which for many of us was the first time, was a very intense learning experience. We had to “feel” our way through it, and the most useful lesson of all, was perhaps the importance of keeping an open mind and being sensitive to the reactions of the people.
