Hi all, I have some questions that I hope will receive primarily some practical advice and possibly philosophical discussion , of course both are welcome! First some apologies- given the recent tensions in the maling list I wanted to make sure this request for advice in a confused period of my research process does not invite criticism for its nature or content. Please forgive any offence if you are studying these issues and have published relevant papers that answer my questions- no insult is meant - im just finding it hard to find detailed methodologies. Also apologies in advance if I misquote theory/ misuse the lexicon in your discipline. Lastly my apologies for my naivety in these issues - perhaps my questions are very well addressed I have just failed to understand the literature- perhaps I just need to read more, but I hope you will empathise or at least understand the reasons for my mind boggling. Its a little scary posting this to so many faceless people but I hope some of you may be able to provide some guidance.
I am trying to use resilience/systems approach to undertake an interdisciplinary study looking information sharing, and its role mitigating human wildlife conflict and improving food security. I am trying to be very participatory/bottom up in nature. From my literature review (extensive review of more that 400 papers covering many disciplines) the social-ecological systems approach seems to be the way to go. The more I read the more I realise I have some underlying questions and concerns that I have not been able to address on my own- so (in the spirit of participation) I am calling for advice on the follow thoughts: *-interdisciplinary complexity- What to measure?* many papers (whether about HEC, natural resource management in general, or resilience to climate change), talk about the need to include methods/data and theory from several disciplines such as economics, governance, political science, social psychology, information pathways, ecology, anthropology, agricultural science, conflict management etc. etc., in order to address the complexity of the social-ecological system. At the same time they advise clear testable approaches with defined variables so as not to get lost in the complexity of including 'everything'. They suggest that careful consideration is given to deciding which factors to include in research and analysis without further suggestion of how to make such decisions. Also, it seems that few studies actually manage to integrate all these considerations despite claims to do so, or fail to follow their own recommendations, and instead take the easy way out by saying that future efforts should do consider socio-economic factors/governance issues not just the ecological.. Or socio-economic studies say next time we should include ecological factors... I realise science is a process built on previous research, so there will always be recommendations for improvement, but everyone is calling for integrated socio-ecological approaches yet there seems to be no advice (or little) on how to do actually this on the ground. - how to actually measure variables that contribute to resilience or adaptive capacity, how to integrate governance, psychology, climate and biodiversity in to one study. Modelling seems like a good approach and the relevant literature recommend to use multiple analyses to capture complex data- such as participatory mapping, mental models, fuzzy cognitive maps, agent based modelling, action research, social network analysis, vulnerability assessments, food security indicators, spatial analyses, and multivariate decision modelling- to name a few, and thats not including any ecological methods. At the same time they recommend participatory user-driven research -whereby the local farmers (in my case) help to guide the direction and nature of the participatory research. So here are a few questions that lead from these deliberations: 1) how do you work out (as a student) which modelling/approaches to use? 2) how do you decide which variables are important in your study if everything is so interconnected and apparently important (in regards to vulnerability and food security)? *Interdisciplinary teams:* people tend to refer to interdisciplinary research when they actually refer to what I consider 'multi-disciplinary'; many scientists each from a different discipline coming together to work on a unified project. 4) is it possible to carry out interdisciplinary work as a lone PhD student- rather than as a team of different disciplines together- can supervisors from different disciplines sufficiently advise a single interdisciplinary student? Can one student sufficiently learn/process and adopt theory and carry out methods from so many disciplines? I am an ecologist by training but I have taken (graduate level but introductory) courses in environmental anthropology, social psychology, GIS, and conflict management. But I do not have an economist on my research project to help define how to measure food security or consider market values. I do not have a social psychologist to help identify the causality of values or beliefs in predicting uptake behaviour. I have have no experience with coding interviews to elicit thematic concepts of self. And I am totally lost by the idea of incorporating the governance structure or how one might begin to include organisational capacity or policies as possible contributing factors to food security at the household level. 5) Is it even rational/possible to try and learn theory underpinning all relevant disciplines- if so, wouldn't it become too big for a feasible phd study? If not, can the methods and analyses be learned and integrated without knowing the theory?- wouldn't the theoretical underpinning of the research being too weak? 6) how do you begin to measure/incorporate intangible qualitative components such as learning capacity, or self-organisation into a model/ hypothesis/ research proposal *Participatory methods:* 7) how do introduce your project/objectives, or even just yourself, to the stakeholders without biasing the direction of the research? 8) How can you design a project proposal based on these methods and hypotheses, when at the same time carrying out a bottom-up approach where you dont know the direction it will take you (The pilot study can only be carried out after I have proposal approval) 9) How can you use complex modelling systems (another discipline to learn) while doing truly participatory research with illiterate rural farmers? surely the methods have to somewhat match the capacity of the participants. 10) what happens if the research is participatory and includes communities and NGOs/Government representatives during the exploratory phase, but the institutions that have the power to create/change policies, or allow/fund activities etc do not agree to this autonomy and do not wish to continue. How do I as a researcher manage these kinds of blockages and the expectations of the farmers? 11) How do I focus my project and stop all this worrying? :) Thanks for your insights. Tania Tania Bird MSc There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed ~ Mahatma Gandhi
