‘developing’ and ‘developed world’ contexts
Research design: I worked and lived with a Balinese co-researcher, Putu Hermawati, in both villages where we selected two to three diverse temple communities for inclusion. Within them, women and men representing the range of ages, marital status and occupational characteristics of their communities were invited to par-ticipate in a series of gender-segregated workshops. A range and sequence of parti-cipatory techniques were used in these workshops to generate information and analyses about gender and development. Information from these workshops was discussed at a village-level meeting and priorities for action were identified. Repres-entatives of each village then accompanied Putu and Sara to present their findings and analyses to regional government officials and request support to meet their gendered development needs. The process of selection, workshops and meetings took about three months for each village. This time period also included other aspects of contextual research (see Kindon, 1998 for more detail). In addition, we held interviews with key government officials and a workshop at provincial level where all information generated was discussed and participatory training in gender analysis for government workers and researchers was facilitated.
Access: We worked through local male leaders to contact villagers. The support of these headmen was critical to the project’s success, but in some cases also inhibited the involvement of certain people, particularly women. Other participants were sought through personal visits, or through impromptu research sessions which occurred while we participated in daily activities. These additional informal activities ensured that the perspectives of more marginal community members were acknowl-edged. In total, a sequence of six workshops was held with each group and over 300 people from village to provincial government level took part in the research.
Techniques: Techniques used within the workshops complemented the wider con-textual research we conducted while living in the village communities and enabled us to tease out issues and relationships in more detail. In terms of diagramming, three techniques were used. (a) Cartoon picture cards: participants used pre-drawn cartoon picture cards of typical village and household scenes to stimulate the telling of their own stories about family life, gender relationships and environmental issues in their communities, and to stimulate discussion about development needs that they would like to meet. (b) Needs assessment and priority selection: I made drawings of the development needs identified under the guidance of participants who then selected their three priority needs by placing a coloured sticker next to the relevant drawings (Figure 9.2). Women’s and men’s needs were compared in a subsequent joint meeting. (c) Mapping: participants drew a map of their com-munity and placed coloured stickers in appropriate locations which identified the natural (green), cultural (red) and institutional (blue) resources that could help them meet some of their needs. Discussion was encouraged during and after each technique, and Putu and Sara recorded the key points for future reference.
Analysis: Men and women were brought together in the last meeting in each temple community and in the village-level meetings. This enabled them to communicate their findings and analyses to each other. The village, regional government meetings and the provincial-level meeting all helped to refine, cross-check and validate Case Study One continued
Figure 9.2 Needs assessment and priority selection: men indicate the development priorities
Source: Kindon: Bali, 1991–92
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data generated and involve a more diverse range of people in analysis and discussion.
Putu and I then wrote recommendations based on these discussions for a sustain-able development policy for Bali, which was presented to the Provincial Planning Agency.
Reflections on the fieldwork: Issues of access, rapport, cross-cultural communication and intra-communal diversity are common within participatory research in ‘devel-oping world’ contexts. In Bali, it was important to hold meetings at convenient times for both women and men, which meant we first had to find out the daily time activities and movements of people within each community. Most meetings were held in the late afternoon or early evening in the local community balai (hall). Participants enjoyed the techniques and found them easy to relate to, par-ticularly because they did not require them to read or write. Alongside the work-shops, it was critically important to live with the people with whom we were working, sharing their food and helping out when needed. This developed rapport and provided informal opportunities to involve a wider range of people. Being able to speak Bahasa Indonesia was essential to my understanding and communication but, as most participants also used Bahasa Bali, Putu’s involvement was vital to the groups’ smooth facilitation and the analysis. In some groups, it became clear that caste differences inhibited the full participation of some lower-caste men and women, and in hindsight, it might have been beneficial to have subdivided the women and men into smaller, less diverse peer groups.
Outcomes: When Putu and I visited the two villages in 1998, a number of parti-cipants were keen to show us how the development needs identified through the workshops had been met by the regional government or themselves. In the upland village, the government had provided a sorely needed local health clinic to their northern-based community (a need identified by women) and paved a consider-able stretch of the village’s main road (identified by the men). The government also instituted training in water system maintenance, which had been identified as an issue particularly by women. For the first time in Bali, women were involved in training so they could repair the systems independently of men. From their own initiative, participants had set up a revolving credit scheme and generated enough money to pave a minor road and enable the easier transportation of agricultural produce to market. This had increased the incomes of more remote families and strengthened connections within the community as a whole. While these outcomes were encouraging, most of the needs met were practical and did not challenge the more fundamental gender inequalities also identified within the research. The more strategic issues identified within the workshops, particularly by women, remained unchanged.
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