Mark, thanks for this reply. Your post helps highlight an interesting phenomenon across all disciplines that I see often, which is how to bridge the gap in communications. Having come from a social science background and working in an entirely different field (victims rights advocation), I have had the great fortune to experience working on a variety of challenges from different sides of the fence so to speak. Initially, I often found it difficult to engage with the hard science side of environmental or development related issues, and I felt like it took many years to feel comfortable (confident?) with the language and methods being used. Interestingly enough, however, as I grappled with this major shift I had another aha moment that occurred in the reverse of the one I write about above.
I was working in South Sudan and met a young man in a far off-the-beaten path rural area. He was working with a small NGO putting in groundwater wells. As we began discussing how their organization decided where to put the wells, he indicated that no one within the organization knew much about groundwater and they hadn't consulted with any geologists, hydrologists, or soil scientists. This really shocked me because it can have serious implications on draw downs for nearby wells, which can ultimately lead to severe community conflict. Within the groundwater research literature on Africa, this is an issue that is often highlighted (lack of proper borehole siting). When speaking with a local commissioner in the area about this concern, he indicated that indeed when people come form outside to put in boreholes, he decided where it would go and it was more about who was due a favor and that no science when into it.
I would say these two aha moments combined are what solidified my pursuit of improved communication with all levels of stakeholders and an emphasis on supporting and facilitating interdisciplinary work. It is well known that decisions in many places are made along social lines of political favors owed, customs, beliefs, or simply who has the money and only rarely on science. The then becomes getting the best available science to people through these mechanisms and that can only be done be working with social scientists. Ultimately, people (and as you point out, we are only talking about this because people exist in the world) will do what they want, and the role of science in the context of research for development should be to help inform that decision but not to make it. I would go a step further to even say that there should also be more research that is informed by people. This is where the above commenter's (Marla) assertion about gender bias is particularly relevant given that most research questions are formulated by men and more often than not address quite male focused issues.
It is definitely good to see after so many years that this type of dialog among people is beginning to develop. It has been too long in coming and I have no doubt that we have a long road still to travel. For many of us working on this challenge our mantra has become as the old African proverb: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
Mark, thanks for this reply. Your post helps highlight an interesting phenomenon across all disciplines that I see often, which is how to bridge the gap in communications. Having come from a social science background and working in an entirely different field (victims rights advocation), I have had the great fortune to experience working on a variety of challenges from different sides of the fence so to speak. Initially, I often found it difficult to engage with the hard science side of environmental or development related issues, and I felt like it took many years to feel comfortable (confident?) with the language and methods being used. Interestingly enough, however, as I grappled with this major shift I had another aha moment that occurred in the reverse of the one I write about above.
I was working in South Sudan and met a young man in a far off-the-beaten path rural area. He was working with a small NGO putting in groundwater wells. As we began discussing how their organization decided where to put the wells, he indicated that no one within the organization knew much about groundwater and they hadn't consulted with any geologists, hydrologists, or soil scientists. This really shocked me because it can have serious implications on draw downs for nearby wells, which can ultimately lead to severe community conflict. Within the groundwater research literature on Africa, this is an issue that is often highlighted (lack of proper borehole siting). When speaking with a local commissioner in the area about this concern, he indicated that indeed when people come form outside to put in boreholes, he decided where it would go and it was more about who was due a favor and that no science when into it.
I would say these two aha moments combined are what solidified my pursuit of improved communication with all levels of stakeholders and an emphasis on supporting and facilitating interdisciplinary work. It is well known that decisions in many places are made along social lines of political favors owed, customs, beliefs, or simply who has the money and only rarely on science. The then becomes getting the best available science to people through these mechanisms and that can only be done be working with social scientists. Ultimately, people (and as you point out, we are only talking about this because people exist in the world) will do what they want, and the role of science in the context of research for development should be to help inform that decision but not to make it. I would go a step further to even say that there should also be more research that is informed by people. This is where the above commenter's (Marla) assertion about gender bias is particularly relevant given that most research questions are formulated by men and more often than not address quite male focused issues.
It is definitely good to see after so many years that this type of dialog among people is beginning to develop. It has been too long in coming and I have no doubt that we have a long road still to travel. For many of us working on this challenge our mantra has become as the old African proverb: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”