Task: describe this method (under the three headings below) as an agile approach for using during TTDR processes with social actors / stakeholders as a concrete means of honouring the 'social contracting' between researchers and stakeholders - especially if there is high premium on stakeholders' phenological observations of the changes in a particular situation (context). These may very well include observations of changes in the physical environment (nature) taking place, which may be too distributed in time and space for researchers to spot and therefore need the many eyes and ears of all the stakeholders involved in the research - which is at heart of CS guided by the principle of distributed ethnography.

Joining the dots in figuring out how any changes in the physical environment are impacting the needs + well-being of stakeholders, and vice versa, is / should be part and parcel of the discussions generated by this method. These discussion, in turn, can be deepened and widened by using this approach together with any of the other process facilitation methods presented and explained on the other sub-pages. For example, bringing the phenological observations of changes in nature into a RD/A exercises can be used to radically shift locked-in stakeholder positions and perceptions of their current situation - which, in turn, can be used in FB exercises for figuring out the next step(s) in moving away from certain undesirable / unsustainable situations in the present

Note: at no stage in all of this should researchers assume their roles to be/come normative - i.e. telling stakeholders what is / are 'right' vs. 'wrong' with the current situation or, even worse, with them (stakeholders) in their situation. Researchers are by no means the normative custodians of others (even if they have valid normative insights and views of the current situation). Instead, the aporetic role of researchers (see home page for a brief reference to this) is to ensure that stakeholders are presented with as varied as possible own phenological and phenomenological observations and experiences - thereby, enabling researchers to keep on asking the what-if question when sitting together with stakeholders to figuring out the next step(s) in / for their current situation - by keep on asking what the consequences could / may be if omitting / excluding some of their own observations and experiences from any decision-making on the course(s) of action to be taken...

General introduction

Features

Uses (as agile method for TTDR purposes)