Resources

Visual Literacy In Communication: designing for development

Authors: 
Zimmer and Zimmer
1978

Abstract

Ideas about communication have mostly come from the industrialised West, meaning people in developing countries have to learn "an alien visual language" in order to understand development illustrations. The first question for an illustrator to ask is "for whom am I designing this picture?" From experience in India, most designers seem to be producing for their own kind, rather than for those in the villages and are "blind to the visual language of their own culture". This practical manual suggests how to go about producing appropriate visual aids by first collecting an "inventory of visual language" in the local area (traditional designs, clothing styles, meaning of certain colours etc). Illustrators should "build on a society's achievements, not what it lacks". The design process is described step by step, with checklists on the advantages of various visual styles and ideas about layout and assessing the "audience's" response to the finished product. The author warns that the process is not easy, "using traditional visual forms to express modern ideas can be like discussing nuclear physics in Sanskrit.."

Publisher

Appropriate methodology: an example using a traditional African board game to measure farmers' attitude and environmental images.

Authors: 
Barker, D.
1979

Abstract

The recent growth in interest in the utility of indigenous environmental knowledge in Africa has brought more sharply into focus the cross-cultural limitations of many conventional geographical methods for collecting perceptual and behavioural data. There is a danger in uncritical reliance on transferred social science methodologies which often embody cultural assumptions exterior to the local culture. This paper explains the use of local traditional cultural forms, in particular the use of a Nigerian board game derived from Mancala. This type of multi-method approach, given carefully designed research programmes, could provide a variety of different learning formats and experiences for both research worker and farmer, and encourage mutual understanding and co-operation in agricultural research in developing countries.

Publisher

Finding the Cause of Child Malnutrition: a Community Handbook

Authors: 
Brown, J.
1979

Abstract

This community handbook is designed to help health workers address three questions: i) How do you measure community malnutrition? ii) What are the food problems in your community? iii) Which problems should you attack? A series of appendices describe various practical ways of measuring child development. Health workers are encouraged to analyse and act upon the various socio-economic causes of ill health. An extensive list of further information sources is provided, with little emphasis on methodology.

Publisher

Rural Appraisal in Sanitation Programmes: A Technology Case Study

Authors: 
Pacey, A.
1979

Abstract

It is argued that rural appraisal (talking with local people) needs to be undertaken by sanitary engineers to free them from five types of inhibition: 1) assumptions based on academic subdivisions; 2) the assumption that rural communities have no significant technology of their own; 3) a tendency to overlook opportunities for detailed improvements and go for technological solutions; 4) a failure to recognise the 'invisible' components of local technology - its software and organisational form; 5) assumptions based on professional or western cultural values.

Understanding Pictures

Authors: 
Walker, D.A.
1979

Abstract

Various kinds of pictures (abstract, realistic, photographs) were shown to literate and non-literate people in rural and urban Nepal to test their understanding. The research aimed to see to what extent perception of drawings etc was influenced by experience. Results showed that all groups were able to interpret cartoons as easily as photos, but not pictures involving perspective and proportion. Lack of "sufficient stimulation in the area of spatial understanding" in the village context is related to this inability to understand projective relationships (eg that a tree in the distance is not actually smaller than the near tree in a picture). Visual literacy could be improved however by "picturial cues (such as perspective) being consciously and systematically introduced" to people. As well as a detailed account of the field work and implications for development workers using visual aids, this book (which is based on a thesis) gives a comprehensive overview of the theoretical concepts around visual literacy.

Publisher

Finding Out About Child (0-5 years) Feeding Practices

Authors: 
Gordon, Gill
1979

Abstract

Conventional studies of child feeding practices are difficult and time-consuming, since family food use is a sensitive topic since it hinges on economic status and power relationships. The author argues that since "this information can only be obtained by workers trusted by the community, after both sides have understood and become concerned with the object of the investigation". The roles of an RRA facilitator in providing, collecting, interpreting and discussing information are outlined. Section 2 discusses 8 questions relating to feeding practices, covering problems with conventional food consumption surveys, trust between researchers and researched, the importance of relating reported to actual practices, evaluating 'satisfactory' feeding practices, understanding mothers' perceptions of practices, problems and obstacles to change, and the importance of sharing information for mutual learning between the interviewer and the community.

Ecological And Environmental Indicators For The Rapid Appraisal Of Natural Resources

Authors: 
Stocking, Michael
Abel, Nick
1979

Abstract

This paper examines some of the assumptions underlying rapid appraisal of natural resources. Four case studies of varying complexity are presented to illustrate the range of possibilities in using ecological and environmental indicators to appraise aspects of the physical environment which might either be assessed by longer methods, or not at all. The cases concern the use of proxy variables to facilitate rapid assessment. These proxies are soil colour, plant indicators, soil erosion, and forest vegetation. The paper concludes that rapid appraisal of natural resources involves the use of proxy indicators, and that ecological and environmental systems are amenable to this type of treatment because of the high degree of interdependency between factors.

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