R4D Jamaica

Quantitative Methods in Contexts of Everyday Violence

Tue, 17 May 2011 09:41 GMT

Document Type: Miscellaneous
Creator: Justino, P.; Leavy, J.; Valli, E.

Production Year: 2009

Citation: IDS Bulletin (2009) 40 (3) 41-49 [DOI: 10.1111/j.1759-5436.2009.00037.x]

Summary: The analysis of violence from an individual or household perspective is arguably one of the most challenging research areas in social science. Outbreaks of violence affect the core of human relations and social norms. They occur in non-linear cycles, and co-exist at different levels of social interaction within the family, the community or the state. Analysis of this complexity cannot be restricted to one social science discipline or method of analysis. This article reflects on an innovative methodology adopted to capture the experience of living with violence in communities in Brazil, Jamaica, Mexico and Nigeria. The methodology confronted disciplinary boundaries by encouraging close dialogue between quantitative and qualitative researchers in violent settings, and creating processes for learning and sharing. This article describes the methodology, presents the main results of the quantitative analysis and reflects on the challenges and lessons.

Researching with ‘Violent Actors’: Dangers, Responsibilities and Ethics

Tue, 17 May 2011 09:11 GMT

Document Type: Miscellaneous
Creator: Moncrieffe, J.

Production Year: 2009

Citation: IDS Bulletin (2009) 40 (3) 97-99 [DOI: 10.1111/j.1759-5436.2009.00045.x]

Summary: It is difficult to understand people's stories if researchers do not go beyond the labelling and categorisation that is common in all contexts. Those who live outside inner-city communities in Jamaica often do not understand the loyalty that is shown by inner-city residents to actors whom outsiders dismiss as cruel and violent perpetrators. This briefing note reinforces the importance of delving beyond society's labels in order to effectively research why people think and act the way they do. Choosing to engage with violent offenders raises serious ethical issues, which researchers in Jamaica contemplated and responded to in diverse ways.

Negotiating Children’s Social Contexts in Jamaica: Ethics, Practicalities and Research Methodologies

Tue, 17 May 2011 08:40 GMT

Document Type: Miscellaneous
Creator: Moncrieffe, J.

Production Year: 2009

Citation: IDS Bulletin (2009) 40 (3) 65-71 [DOI: 10.1111/j.1759-5436.2009.00040.x]

Summary: Conducting research in contexts of violence requires sensitivity and prudence, particularly when the study involves children. This article outlines some of the ethical and practical issues that influenced ‘how' researchers worked with children in selected inner-city Jamaican communities. It demonstrates the importance of self-reflection, recognising that researcher's social backgrounds may have much more weight than they acknowledge on the research process and product.

The Jamaican Internet: Supply, Demand and Education. Information Society Research Group Working Paper 5

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 04:56 GMT

Document Type: Miscellaneous
Creator: Horst, H.; Miller, D.

Production Year: 2005

Citation: Working Paper 5, Information Society Research Group (ISRG), UK, 12 pp.

Summary: This paper describes the presence of the internet in Jamaica. It attempts to outline and understand the way that the internet has (and has not) taken shape throughout the country, with particular attention to the role of the government, corporations as well as NGOs have structured the possibilities for the internet and how, in turn, Jamaicans have responded to the availability of internet and computer resources in schools, free and NGO sponsored sites as well as public cybercafes. These findings are intended to provide the backdrop for the more focused concern with the lack of demand and its implications for policy that are outlined in the second working paper in this series.

Cell Phone come like a Blessing: Religion and the Cell Phone in a Rural Jamaican Town

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 08:46 GMT

Document Type: Miscellaneous
Creator: Miller, D.; Horst, H.

Production Year: 2005

Citation: Jamaica Journal (2005) 29 (1-2) 12-17

Summary: This article suggests that kinship exemplifies a pattern that may be found in a wider range of Jamaican networking strategies including the creation of spiritual and church communities. The rapid adoption of cell phones and the patterns of their use by low-income Jamaicans are discussed and the importance of understanding the local incorporation of cell phones and local forms of networking enacted through new communication technologies are highlighted. The authors conclude that there is no aspect of phone use that could or should be considered exclusively 'religious' and thereby isolated from other aspects of people's lives.

Understanding Demand: A Proposal for the Development of ICTs in Jamaica. Information Society Research Group Working Paper 2

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 07:02 GMT

Document Type: Miscellaneous
Creator: Miller, D.; Horst, H.

Production Year: 2005

Citation: Working Paper 2, Information Society Research Group (ISRG), UK, ISBN 1-9210830-3-4, 17 pp.

Summary: This discussion document is primarily concerned with ICT policy as it might effect and potentially transform the welfare of low-income communities in Jamaica. It is based on anthropological fieldwork with low income Jamaicans conducted during 2004, which comprised six months residence in rural Clarendon and six months in a low-income settlement within Portmore. Although part of the project involved an extensive survey of one hundred households and an intensive budget analysis of twenty households, most of our work was based upon developing trust and rapport with families over several months while carrying out formal and informal interviews. It also involved living within such households in order to develop an understanding of daily life. In addition a range of personnel working for the IT industry, government and particular services such as teachers and medics were interviewed.

From Kinship to Link-up: Cell Phones and Social Networking in Jamaica

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 04:48 GMT

Document Type: Miscellaneous
Creator: Horst, H.; Miller, D.

Production Year: 2005

Citation: Current Anthropology (2005) 46 (5) 755-778, ISSN 0011-3204

Summary: On the basis of lists of numbers saved on individuals' cell phones and other evidence, it is argued here that low-income Jamaicans use the cell phone to establish extensive networks, a practice identified as "link-up." Link-up has many of the same characteristics as those found by R. T. Smith in a classic study of Jamaican kinship and genealogy. However, the new evidence suggests that kinship merely exemplifies a pattern that may be found in a wider range of Jamaican networking strategies including the creation of spiritual and church communities, the search for sexual partners, and the coping strategies adopted by low-income households. Link-up also accounts for the rapid adoption of cell phones and the patterns of their use by low-income Jamaicans and highlights the importance of understanding the local incorporation of cell phones and local forms of networking enacted through new communication technologies.

Final Report. Information Society: Emergent Technologies and Development Communities in the South

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 09:16 GMT

Document Type: Miscellaneous
Creator: Miller, D.; Skuse, A.; Slater, D.; Tacchi, J.; Chandola, T.; Cousins, T.; Horst, H.; Kwami, J.

Production Year: 2005

Citation: Information Society Research Group (ISRG), UK, 118 pp.

Summary: In response to both the gap in qualitative knowledge relating to ICTs and development, and the need to generate more detailed accounts of the social, cultural and political dynamics that constrain or facilitate ICT interventions and pro-social communication more broadly, a team of researchers came together and established a research group (Information Society Research Group) to work in partnership with local institutions in pursuit of its research agenda in the four countries chosen for the study, India, Ghana, South Africa and Jamaica. In each country, in order to gauge differences in uptake and use of ICTs, an urban and rural research site was chose. The purpose of this strategy was to ensure some basic comparability between the four countries. The findings of the study are presented under the following categories:
-New networks and the management of remoteness
-Health and welfare
-Civil Society strengthening and rights
-Education
-Gender Equity
-Livelihoods and economy

Teacher Migration from Jamaica: Assessing the Short-Term Impact

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 08:58 GMT

Document Type: Miscellaneous
Creator: Sives, A.; Morgan, W. J.; Appleton, S.

Production Year: 2006

Citation: Caribbean Journal of Education (2006) 27 (1) 85-111

Summary: In this article, we present and analyse specific data collected from nineteen schools in urban and rural Jamaica in September and November 2004. Through a combination of semi-structured interviews with principals and questionnaires distributed to teachers, we discuss how the migration of teachers since 2000 has affected the delivery of education to Jamaican children. Our findings reveal that while there appeared to be little correlation between direct migration and teacher shortage in the schools visited, there were important impacts on the quality of education delivered.

Teachers as community leaders: the potential impact of teacher migration on Education for All and Millennium Development Goals

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 07:44 GMT

Document Type: Miscellaneous
Creator: Sives, A.; Morgan, W. J.; Appleton, S.

Production Year: 2004

Citation: Paper presented at the International Conference on Adult Education and Poverty Reduction: A global priority, University of Botswana, 14-16 June 2004, Centre for Comparative Education Research, University of Nottingham, pp. 349-354

Summary: This paper highlights the importance of the role of teachers in developing countries not only as educational leaders, but also in recognising their contribution to wider community and national development. The paper argues that the migration of teachers is an underemphasised aspect of globalisation, and potentially hinders the international goals of education for all and its wider impacts. There is a gap in knowledge of teachers' movements and its implications for achieving educational objectives.