Abstract
This chapter proposes an ethnographic and collaborative model of inquiry for executing community scale architectural projects that facilitate capacity building opportunities for all stakeholders involved in the process. Taking on the role of an ethnographer, the designer/architect/researcher is able to locate her- or himself within the time and space of the community. In the process he/she is able to form an insider’s perspective on issues and challenges. Working collaboratively, the intention is to create a horizontal power relation between different stakeholders. The model is described in general terms, then illustrated by a case-study—an Activity Centre project for an Indian slum settlement—then discussed in terms of its capacity building outcomes.
The Activity Centre project was initiated by a non-government organization, and involved the local architect, the academic researcher and architecture students, residents of a slum settlement, and skilled labour. Although each stakeholder entered into the project with different objectives, the project outcomes were able to provide benefit to all in a tangible or intangible manner. The chapter reflects on the methods employed in the project and the role of stakeholders at each stage of the process. The importance of the local context is underscored—local people, local resources, local tools and techniques—during the design and construction process, to achieve an outcome that is innovative and engenders reciprocity and learning amongst the stakeholders.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Within a participatory design framework, co-design is considered to be ‘collective creativity of collaborating designers’ or ‘the creativity of designers and people not trained in design working together in the design development process’ (Sanders and Stappers 2008, p. 6).
References
Adler, P. A., & Adler, P. (1997). Membership roles in field research. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute. (2003). Achieving resident participation in community and urban renewal in Australia. AHURI Research and Policy Bulletin, 19, 1–4.
Barab, S. A., Thomas, M. K., Dodge, T., Squire, K., & Newell, M. (2004). Critical design ethnography: Designing for change. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 35(2), 269–276.
Chaskin, R. (2001). Defining community capacity: A definitional framework and case studies from a comprehensive community initiative. Urban Affairs Review, 36(3), 291–323.
Cities Alliance: Cities without slums. (2003). Annual report. http://www.citiesalliance.org/ca/node/587. Accessed 30 Feb 2012.
Davoudi, S., & Healey, P. (1995). City challenge: Sustainable process or temporary gesture. Environment & Planning C: Government and Policy, 13, 79–95.
Debord, G. (1977). The society of the spectacle (trans: Perlman, F. & Supak, I.). library.nothingness.org. Accessed 20 April 2013.
Eade, D. (2007). Capacity building: Who builds whose capacity? Development in Practice, 17(4/5), 630–639. http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/25548262?uid=3737536&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21101387690133. Accessed 13 Feb 2013.
Gille, Z., & Riain, S. O. (1995). Global ethnography. Annual Reviews Sociology, 28, 271–295.
Hammersley, M. (1992). What’s wrong with ethnography? Methodological explorations. London: Routledge.
Healey, P. (1997). Collaborative planning: Shaping places in fragmented societies. London: MacMillan.
Healey, P. (1999). Building institutional capacity through collaborative approaches to planning. Environment and Planning A, 30(9), 1531–1546.
Ife, J. (1995). Community development: Creating community alternatives—vision, analysis and practice. Sydney: Longman.
Innes, J., & Booher, D. (2003). The impact of collaborative planning on governance capacity. Institute of Urban and Regional Development Working Paper Series. Berkeley: University of California.
Kolko, J. (2011). Design for impact. http://www.slideshare.net/ixdsa/jon-kolko-design-for-impact. Accessed 20 March 2013.
Lewis, I. M. (1985). Social anthropology in perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lefebvre, H. (2002). The right to the city. In G. Bridge & S. Watson (Eds.), The Blackwell city reader (pp. 367–374). UK: Blackwell.
Manav Sadhana. (n.d.). http://www.manavsadhna.org/subnode.aspx?snodeId=22&siteID=2&nodeId=7. Accessed 20 May 2013.
McMurray, A., & Clendon, J. (2011). Community health and wellness: Primary health care in practice. Australia: Elsevier.
Nilsson, M. (2000, April). Organizational development as action research, ethnography, and beyond. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA.
Pandya, Y. (2008). Mass housing: A paradoxical idiom of identity within conformity: Modern housing solutions. Architecture + Design, 25(11), 46–52.
Reeves, S., Kuper, A., & Hodges, B. (2008). Qualitative research methodologies: Ethnography. BMJ, 337(7668), 512–514. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.a Accessed 20 May 2013.
Sanders, E. B. N., & Stappers, P. J. (2008). Co-creation and the new landscapes of design. CoDesign International Journal of CoCreation in Design and the Arts, 4(1), 5–18.
Stelljes, A. (2008). Service learning and community engagement. NY: Cambria Press.
Tewdwr-Jones, M., & Allmendinger, P. (1998). Deconstructing communicative rationality: A critique of Habermasian communicative planning. Environment and Planning A, 11(30), 1975–1989.
Tiwari, R. (2009). Integrating the marginalized: Towards a connected city. In P. Felli (Ed.), City Futures: Architetture Design Tecnologia per ill futuro delle citta (pp. 139–153). Hoepli: Milan.
Trivedi, N., & Tiwari, R. (2010). Collaborative dialogue and action for home-based work issues in Indian slum settlements. Reflections: Journal of Built Environment Research, 2(1), 51–57.
World Architecture Community. (2009). Media release. http://www.worldarctitecture.org/world-buildings/world-buildings-detail.asp. Accessed 29 Jan 2012.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Tiwari, R., Pandya, Y. (2014). An Ethnographic and Collaborative Model of Inquiry: Activity Centre Project in India. In: Tiwari, R., Lommerse, M., Smith, D. (eds) M² Models and Methodologies for Community Engagement. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4585-11-8_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4585-11-8_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-4585-10-1
Online ISBN: 978-981-4585-11-8
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)