Cultural and social analysis

WHAT IS A CULTURAL AND SOCIAL ANALYSIS?

A generic definition

Cultural and social analysis has its origins in sociology and anthropology.

In his reference book "Economy and Society", Max Weber described sociology as "a science, whose objective is to understand social activities through interpretations, with a view to explaining the causal chains for the process of these activities, as well as their impacts" (Weber, 1922).

Basically, sociology examines groups which constitute societies, interaction processes between these groups and the effects of these interactions on other fields, such as economics, law, and education.

Anthropology studies the biological and cultural evolution of humanity, and questions the symbolic meanings in social behaviour, be it economic, domestic or ritualistic. Thus, the two reference disciplines studying cultural and social events are anthropology and sociology.

In the development field

Sociology and anthropology have supported the development field as a result of the contribution of well-known specialists, such as Michael Cernea. He fostered the application of sociology and development anthropology at the World Bank in the sixties, and, since then, his many publications have highlighted the constructive role played by the social sciences in development strategies.

"To carry out in practice this rationale for social research, forecasting, and design, the development sociologist or anthropologist possesses and contributes to the store of professional knowledge about social organization and cultural systems necessary for inducing development with larger gains and fewer pains" (Cernea, 1995).

The first world summit for social development, held in Copenhagen in March 1995, is still a major reference point for cultural and social analysis in the field of development.

Definition applied to country/region evaluations

When applied to country/region evaluations, cultural and social analysis deals with society from the perspective of its structures and dynamics. It brings out the constituent elements of ethnicity, social and religious groups, interest groups and the characteristics supporting the common values of a society, as well as its internal contradictions.

Cultural and social analysis does not only focus on baseline structures, but also on factors introducing endogenous and exogenous changes within societies. It provides a basis for the understanding of the behaviour of societies towards development co-operation (societies considered as a whole, or individual groups comprising societies).

With this approach, the evaluation aims at understanding how dynamics within society, social hierarchies, social relations based on gender, religious beliefs and the common perceptions of labour, money, wealth and poverty will influence the acceptance and implementation of co-operation programmes.

WHEN AND WHY SHOULD CULTURAL AND SOCIAL ANALYSIS BE USED?

When should cultural and social analysis be used in development topics?

To analyse social changes and impediments to development

Cultural and social analysis should be one of the principal tools for the design of strategies and the definition of programmes. It facilitates the understanding of the capacity of the social structure to absorb and enhance change induced by the implementation of development strategies. At the same time, it provides the means of identifying any constraints which are likely to impede these changes. This is therefore a dynamic process, in contrast to a static description of society.

"The study of social structures in a context of multiple and increasing changes (…) highlights existing contradictions between various principles of structuration and organisation, as well as existing gaps between the 'official' features of society and social behaviour" (Balandier, 1985).

To assess country strategies

In ex ante evaluation

The use of cultural and social analysis is most appropriate in ex ante evaluations, because an understanding of national societies is one of the components on which the whole co-operation process can lean. This specific use will be developed here.

The evaluator should establish a socio-anthropological framework which incorporates the strategy of development co-operation. This strategy and the resulting programmes are likely to be more or less successful in different types of society. The objective is to highlight the factors which favour development strategies introduced by the co-operation process, and to brief the co-operation programme's managers who otherwise might go against specific social, religious and political characteristics, cultural habits and interest groups, and, by doing so, jeopardise the programme.

In all cases

The social and cultural characteristics to be studied should be the ones influencing development co-operation strategies in situations where:

• Target populations are in favour or against actions planned in these strategies
• Local officials responsible for co-operation programmes either enable the whole population to benefit from the strategies' positive effects, or on the contrary, focus on special interest groups, casts or communities
• Religious beliefs or hierarchies in social relations can facilitate or impede changes planned by the European Union's strategy

In intermediary and ex post evaluations

The use of cultural and social analysis in ex ante evaluations does not exclude its inclusion in intermediary and ex post evaluations.

Intermediary evaluations can use this tool to assess the relevance of the strategic objectives and the priorities of programmes.

Ex post evaluations can make a comparison between the initial findings in the cultural and social analysis and an outcome analysis of the programmes implemented under the strategy.

The cultural and social analysis reference framework

In combination with a SWOT analysis

As a general approach, cultural and social analysis can complement a SWOT analysis.

Why introduce cultural and social analysis in country/region evaluation?

To analyse specific social groups

Cultural and social analysis provides a means to examine:

• Which groups are the focus of the assistance (in ex ante evaluation)
• Which groups have actually benefited from the European Union's strategy (in ex post evaluation)
• Which groups have been forgotten in the strategy's wording (ex ante evaluation), or benefited less in the strategy's implementation (ex post evaluation)

People who are involved in the European Union programmes and projects resulting from country strategies. They can be direct partners (such as political authorities, technicians, economic and administrative actors) and indirect ones (beneficiaries). However, they are first and foremost human entities operating in a determined social framework.

A knowledge of how a society is structured (such as parental links and administrative, political, legal and religious systems), and organised (relations among social groups, between politics and civil society, and between political and economic power) is essential to the evaluation.

To understand social behaviour and brakes on development

Cultural and social analysis contributes to the understanding of the decisive factors which shape economic behaviour, institutional practice, and resistance to change. These elements are seldom described in statistical directories, or in official documentation, because development strategies in the past were designed without taking into account social structures and beneficiaries' perspectives.

However, "some failures (in development projects) are simply due to an inadequate economic analysis, others to a misinterpretation of socio-cultural data or ignorance of the role of the participants' traditions in the success of a project" (Kottak, 1998).

Kottak's comment applies both to projects and to country strategies. At the latter level, however, the understanding of socio-cultural data and the role of tradition is more complex. It represents the main challenge to the implementation of a cultural and social analysis.

To get a global overview of society

It is particularly difficult to provide methodological guidance concerning the analysis of social organisation in the context of a country/region evaluation.

Indeed, it is as easy to understand social organisation at a local project level, as it is risky to adopt the same approach at a national level (social complexity may be confusing to the evaluator). The evaluation does not usually develop research rationale, and only chooses elements from social sciences to examine the relevance of the development co-operation strategy, to the reality of a national society.

The elements selected should be the ones included in the general approach framework and, at the same time, be sufficiently relevant to the change resulting from development strategies.
 

What ate the advantages and limitations of cultural and social analysis?

The advantages

A cross-cutting approach

Cultural and social analysis is at the intersection of various evaluation tools. It plays a mediating role between the assessment's topics and evaluation tools.

This tool contributes to the establishment of evaluation conclusions (relating to relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability) on the specificities and the underlying trends in social systems within which strategy and development co-operation programmes are implemented. 

New emphasis on social sciences applied to development

Cultural and social analysis brings new perspectives to applied social sciences because its use is still in its infancy and references are scarce:

" Through the exploration of new fields, researchers in applied social sciences are given
the rare opportunity, along their study on cultural variables in development programmes,
to develop "social inventions" as Whyte puts it ingeniously (Cerna, 1998)".

The limitations

A methodology leaving the strategic objectives unquestioned

The first limitation is inherent in the suggested methodology, which consists of restricting the scope of the cultural and social analysis according to the strategic objectives.

When the analysis is carried out during the strategy drafting stage, its scope is determined by the European Union's general objectives, which do not usually refer to individual country contexts.

When the analysis is carried out at the strategy evaluation stage, its scope is related to the objectives of the strategy to be assessed. In this case, however, the risk of neglecting indicators which could have led to the selection of another set of objectives is substantial.

A methodology whose implementation is challenging

Another aspect of a cultural and social study, which is an inherent difficulty in implementation (rather than a limitation), is the evaluator's onerous responsibility related to the conduct of research.

For the general approach, this methodology can provide indications to the evaluator about the questions to be addressed, the sources of information and the methodology to be used in the collection and analysis of data. Nevertheless, for each country's specific goal, the evaluator will have to deconstruct the wording of the Country Strategy Papers in order to convert the themes of the general approach into individual sub-questions.

A socio-anthropologist expert is therefore required in the evaluation team.

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HOW IS CULTURAL AND SOCIAL ANALYSIS CARRIED OUT?

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Three themes constituting the reference framework

Evaluations are not designed to yield a comprehensive analysis of societies within which the European Union's strategy is assessed, but should identify the main features of these societies. 

These features are gathered into 3 themes constituting the reference framework. It illustrates the society's main characteristics, which provide insights for the understanding of the topics and issues of development. 

These three themes are:

• Legacies: beliefs, customs, heritage and historical background
• Changes: the social, legal and political organisation of society and its transformation
• Empowerment: culture, cultural mixing and production of modernity

For each theme, a list of what is at stake is identified and presented in tables. These issues must be adapted to the context and put into question-form to constitute the evaluation questions.

Legacies: beliefs, customs, heritage and historical background

Definition

"Legacies" refer to the main elements of the past which are deemed to have contributed the shaping of a given society and its current features.

Rationale

Prosperous periods in the past as well as periods of suffering have contributed to the shape of contemporary societies. Some decisive moments in the history of people can affect family and social habits, without always being explicit.

How to take into account the historical background

The aim of cultural and social analysis is not to list dates, nor to carry out a historian's work, but rather to be able to place the cooperation and development strategy within a significant diachronic dimension. 

In other words, questions about the historical background are designed to provide the evaluation with the means of connecting current events with events from the past. Some of them are vivid in the collective memory and others are concealed, though still influential. The responses should add to the perception of development as a continuing process of changes.

Table of the issues in the theme "historical background"

Changes: social, legal and political organisation of society and its transformation
 

Background

The confrontation of social and political models between the North and the South, and within the South, has obviously influenced national systems. 

Rationale

A society is never rigid and efforts to understand the systems and values underpinning it should avoid a static approach. The recent period is characterised by an acceleration of the trading relations and the bilateral and multilateral co-operations. Some social data will have evolved under the double impact of these changes and internal evolutions within societies under study. 

How to take into account social organisation?

The understanding of the relations between socio-political changes and the European co-operation strategy is supported by a comparison between equilibrium and disequilibrium at a global scale and the changes observed within the society under study. 

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1ST STAGE: PREPARATORY STEP

1/ Documentary research

The preparation of a cultural and social analysis mission requires a preliminary documentary research which should be broad and thorough. It helps the evaluators focus on the real goals of the evaluation, ask relevant questions and check their tentative hypotheses on-site with the organisation of expert panel sessions and interviews. In other words, information should be found prior to the mission through a documentary research.

The objectives of the documentary research are:

• To obtain an accurate knowledge of the society
• To focus on the real goals of the evaluation within the boundaries of the three themes constituting the reference framework and ask relevant questions (the hypotheses will be tested on-site afterwards)
• To be able to moderate substantive discussions
• To give the evaluator credibility with the experts through to a thorough knowledge of the topics

As the questions of cultural and social analysis are very large, the documentary research must be carried out efficiently. Below is a methodology for undertaking this documentary analysis.

Bibliographies per country or theme

A bibliographical index or publication report edited on a regular basis and dealing with all the publications dedicated to a country or a region, would be an information asset. Indeed, the reading of bibliographical indexes accelerates the identification of relevant documents for the study of a country strategy and focuses the work on its core issues. However, the evaluator must be careful with bibliographies such as books which are not systematically updated because of the rapid pace of contributions and the delays required to publish an index.

Books and directories such as a handbook with country and/or theme entries

In most cases, the evaluator will not find any bibliographical index. The documentary research should start with articles taken from a directory or a handbook which summarise the history of a country and update its political, economic and social current events regularly. These types of reference books can be found in French, English and in other languages. Although the interest of these articles may seem limited, they enable the evaluator to get familiar with the history of the country quickly and obtain a first set of reference bibliographies.

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Country-focused books

Such books usually deal with ancient history, languages, social structures, religions, etc., without a specific focus and their quality can be uneven. However, they can be invaluable for their short yet thorough presentation of the cultural and social realities and be used to focus the documentary research on specialised bibliographies which investigate further each of the themes selected.

Reference or controversial books

These books or articles, specialised in a theme or subject, can be consulted for the sociology, anthropology, history, human geography, political sciences or economic fields. Reading one or more of these books dealing with each of the three themes of the cultural and social analysis is recommended.

The evaluator should be acquainted with (and if possible have read) the authors who have been working on the country under study and their main contributions. This will give the evaluator a solid foundation and arguments to focus the expert panel debates on topics which are familiar and debated in the country.

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Articles on large themes and subjects taken from specialised reviews

Reading such articles can be time effective. Many specialised reviews can now be easily found on the Internet.

Local publications, working papers and other documents produced by research institutions or observatories in the country under study

During the mission, local publications which are not always available in Europe should be consulted. The evaluator should:

• Systematically obtain local publications which deal with the themes of the cultural and social analysis
• Contact research institutes or observatories (such as the Economic and Social Observatory) where indexes, working papers and studies based on local surveys can be found
• Ask the respondents of the interviews (such as researchers and professors) to bring the working papers and other studies that they have written but which are not yet edited Local press

Local press

The evaluator should regularly consult the local press prior to the mission, in order to get familiar with the topics debated. During the mission, a short press review is recommended to:

• "take the feeling" of the country
• identify the major topics and issues of public debate
• be able to foster the debate during the expert panel sessions and the interviews through the presentation of an article

The reading of the local press is not compulsory but can usefully complement other documentation research.

Official documentation of co-operation agencies

The documentary research should not be limited to the bibliographical research of books and published working papers:

• Official documentation of co-operation agencies must be consulted.
• All the reports and studies relating to the country under evaluation should also be used.

2/ Adaptation of the question grid to the specificities of the country

The background between one country and another varies too much to be able to present a list of pre-determined questions without risking the omission of specific aspects of the context which could be crucial. The suggested series of topics and issues should be adapted to each country following the documentary analysis.

3/ Carrying-out preliminary interviews

These interviews have two objectives: the provision by respondents of interesting contacts and bibliographical references, and complementary information to the documentary research which supports the construction of a precise question grid.

Three categories of respondents seem important to favour:

• specialists of the country under consideration
• specialists of the sector under consideration
• managers of international institutions, such as those working for a desk in Brussels

4/ Determination of the list of experts involved in the panels

Selection of the experts and appointment-making

The preparation of a list of experts can be facilitated by the identification and use of 2 or 3 key informants. The expert list should exceed the number of the experts who will take part in the panel and be constituted of people specialised in the fields under consideration.

The role of key informants is crucial because it supports the triangulation of the sources and eases the participation of target people in the expert panels.

If 3 expert panel sessions of 6 participants each are planned, the list of experts should include at least 18 people. As cancellations may happen, it is advisable to identify more experts than needed.

Appointment-making strategy

The experts should be first contacted by e-mail. The message should include a short description of the mission and the sessions, and the dates. Only the experts responding to this mail and expressing an interest and availability should get more details. The experts who would not have replied to the mail should be contacted by telephone if their number is available.

• specialists of the country under consideration
• specialists of the sector under consideration
• managers of international institutions, such as those working for a desk in Brussels

2ND STAGE: DURING THE MISSION

The expert panels and the interviews organised for the cultural and social analysis should not be used to collect the basic information about the socio-anthropological, institutional or historical characteristics of the country. They are implemented to validate or invalidate primarily hypotheses, to foster the debate on unresolved issues, and to highlight issues which have not been considered before.

The expert panel sessions

Meeting with the members of the panels

Each expert should be interviewed before his/her participation to the panel sessions. During this interview, the evaluator should introduce the participant to the mission and to the issues covered by the analysis. The evaluator can also take this occasion to discuss openly with the expert's experience and approach of his/her field of specialisation, and to collect his/her general opinion about external assistance in his/her country. Questions selected from the grid can be developed during this interview, so as to compare the views of the expert during the panel sessions and the interview.

Organisation of the expert panel sessions

A session is organised for each of the three themes of the cultural and social analysis:

• history, beliefs and legacies of the past
• the social, legal and political organisation of society
• empowerment through technology: cultural issues and social innovations

The session should last about 4 hours, with a break of 15 minutes.

The objectives are:

• to debate the analyses derived from the preliminary readings dealing with the main socio-anthropological, historical, political, economic and cultural characteristics of the society under study, and to analyse recent changes;
• to underline the major topics and issues of interest for the European Commission's country strategy implementation (for example, elements highlighting socio-political reorganisations due to proposed reforms)

Content of the sessions

One of the expert panel's difficulties is to differentiate within the discourse of the experts the personal opinions, interpretations and analyses about a topic they have studied. Indeed, as the expert panel generates general debates which can exceed the specialisation of each expert, the participants can be encouraged to express themselves on topics they are not specialised in.

Several elements can reduce the quality of the participant's expression:

• A lack of familiarity with free expression due to a social, political or religious control, or to a recent past marked by the alienation of fundamental freedoms
• The participation of experts who co-operate with international agencies very often and are used to the standardised speeches of the funding agencies

Moderation of the session

The moderator should be fully aware of the context, in order:

• to be credible towards the participants and be able to moderate the discussion in an informed way
• to avoid descriptive testimonies and focus the debate on the shared knowledge of the experts
• to ask questions which will stimulate the interest and participation of the experts

The interviews

Interviews should not only be considered as a complement to the expert panel methodology. Interviews are as effective as expert panels in the collection of information.

The objective of the interviews is to explore particular points debated during the panel session, or to meet other experts who could not participate in the session because of their unavailability or because the sessions were full. Three types of interviews can be differentiated:

• Interviews scheduled from the home base and organised to complete the expert panel's contribution
• Interviews organised in the country, consequent upon issues arising during the panel's session
• Interviews organised in the country, following suggestion from experts already interviewed or key informants

The work programme should therefore plan enough time for these interviews, which should normally be organised before and after the expert panel sessions.

The focus group

Through the organisation of a focus group, the evaluator could meet the stakeholders and/or the final beneficiaries of the strategies implemented, and validate the data collected during the expert panel sessions and the interviews.

The organisation of a focus group with the stakeholders or with the target population of a development policy differs from the organisation of an expert panel. Whereas experts are contacted by e-mail or telephone (which can be done from the base country), the participants of a focus group can only be contacted in-country, which requires a time-consuming investigation. As the mission's work programme is usually tight, a local informant should be put in charge of the organisation of the focus group. An interpreter should also assist the evaluation team, because local participants will not usually speak the language of the evaluators, or English. Moreover, the richness and subtlety of the participants' expression in their own language can be the object of a specific analysis, all reasons calling for a good interpreter.

3RD STAGE: AFTER THE MISSION

Data analysis

The data derived from the documentary analysis, the panel sessions, the interviews and the focus group are gathered and analysed with a view to contributing to the evaluation questions identified during the preparatory stage. As in other stages, the evaluators should make the distinction between personal opinions, interpretations and analyses, which does not mean that interpretations and opinions should be put aside (but that they should be taken for what they are).

Drafting of the report

The report will normally be divided in three parts, each corresponding to one of the 3 themes constituting the reference framework. In each of these parts, the data analysed will be distinguished from recommendations.

What are the preconditions for cultural and social analysis?

Human resources

The evaluation team should include a sociologist or a senior anthropologist. 

The time span

The person responsible for cultural and social analysis in the evaluation team should allow approximately 40 working days for the task.

Details of these 40 days are provided in the summary table. It forecasts the number of working days in an average situation. In cases where difficulties are likely to occur which will slow down the evaluation progress, 40 to 50 days should be scheduled.

Financial resources

Each expert participating in an expert panel is remunerated for a day's work (corresponding to the panel session and the review of the note prepared by the evaluator). This remuneration should match national rates when the expert is a citizen of the country under study, and international rates when he/she is neither a citizen nor a resident of the country.

The remuneration of an expert participating in several panels will be proportional to the number of sessions.

SUMMARY TABLE OF THE PROCEDURES TO FOLLOW IN COUNTRY/EVALUATIONS

EXAMPLES

• Examples

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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