PRA Techniques
Social Map
Venn Diagramme
Mobility Map
Agricultural Time Line
Time Trend
Bharat S. Sontakki (bharatss@[Link])
Social Mapping
[Link] social knowledge for scientists?
•Adoption
•Rejection PLAN
TD
Social issues •Discontinuance TAR
•Overadoption TTr
Technology map
Social Map
It is a participatory visual map of the village.
Drawn by villagers under facilitation of PRA
team to present and discuss about various
facets of village social life.
It enables to understand village social life in
terms of structure, location and distribution of
households and other important social centres
like chaupal, places of worship, places of
social interaction, etc.
Purpose
To study, understand and analyze village
social life in terms of
social structure/stratification,
social processes,
social facilities,
socially relevant issues and
social problems of the village.
Issues Covered
Location and ownership of dwellings and
buildings
Social stratification
Pattern of influence: who dominates, for what
Institutions
Value systems
Leadership pattern
Social norms
Issues Covered
Social issues and problems
Social interaction (cooperation/competition
/conflict)
Dependency ratio
Ownership of assets and cattle
Beneficiaries of development programmes
Health characteristics
Literacy levels
Key Questions
What are the approximate boundaries of the village
with regard to social interaction and social services?
How many households are found in the village and
where are they located?
Is the number of households growing or shrinking?
What are the social structures and institutions found
in the village and what is their role in village
development?
What are the various social processes in the village
and how they are affecting village development?
How to Facilitate?
Ask key informants (KIs) to draw Village map showing
all households.
For orientation, it will be helpful to draw roads and
significant spots of the village into the map.
Ask KIs to show institutions, buildings and places that
offer some kind of social service or which are popular
venues of social interaction.
Encourage KIs to explore other social issues and
indicate the same using a suitable key or legend.
Make sure that your copy of the map has a key
explaining different items and symbols used on the map.
Institutions and their impact on villagers
Instn 2
Promotion
Influence
Technologies Instn 1
Villagers
Instn 3
Venn Diagram
Highlights importance and influence
patterns of key individuals & institutions in
various aspects of village life.
Ascertains relationships of individuals/
institutions with villagers.
Reflects nature of communication.
Identifies relationships & roles in decision
making in village planning & development.
Procedure
Identify key individuals & institutions responsible for
decision making in a given area.
List out their roles & responsibilities.
Identify degree of contact & overlap between them in
terms of relationships & decision making.
Obtain information from secondary sources, group
interactions, key informants.
Show relationships using circles (chapattis).
Size of circle (chapatti) indicates its importance &
scope.
Procedure
Relationship Patterns
No Relationship
Information flow
Some Cooperation
Considerable Cooperation
How do we indicate relationship patterns
Circles are
independent No Relationship
Circles touch
each other Information Flow
Circles overlap Some
Cooperation in
Decision Making
VENN DIAGRAMME showing INSTITUTIONS and AGENCIES concerned with
DAM MANAGEMENT, MWENJE DAM, ZIMBABWE (1991)
Study of mobility of villagers
REDUCE OUTSIDE MOBILITY
To save time, money, energy & efforts
Mobility Map
Explores spatial mobility/outside contacts
with reasons thereof
Highlights activity-wise importance of
places
Influenced by socio-economic conditions,
gender, age, nature of work,
resourcefulness, transport facilities &
access
Procedure
• Identify appropriate place and persons
• Encourage participants to draw mobility
map by placing village at the centre and
indicating places visited at the periphery
• For each place of mobility indicate the,
purpose, distance, time taken, mode of
transport & cost
Encourage use of activity legends like
ACTIVITY LEGEND
Job/Farming
Health/Medical
Market/Marketing $$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Education
Entertainment
Mobility table of the village
Destination Distance Mode of Fare Purpose
(km) transport (Rs)
Kanchrapara 8 Bus/auto 4.00 Service, market,
marketing, cinema hall,
college, train
Naihati 15 Tempo/van 10.00 Fish marketing, train
Kalyani 15 Bus/train 10.00 Health (JNM), input
purchase, education
Kolkata 53 Bus/train 16.00 Costly input purchase,
job, entertainment,
higher study
Palashi 1 Walking - High school, ashram
Haringhata 10 bus 5.00 College, veterinary
surgeon
Majhipara 2 Walking/cycle - Post office, bank, hat
Farm/Agricultural Time Line:
A.k.a. historical profile
Helps to know history of major remembered
events influencing agricultural development in a
village
Indicates a causal link between past and present
A historical account is given by the key
informants of how different aspects of village life
have changed and made impact on agricultural
development and social, economic and agro-
ecological conditions in the village
Objectives
Useful for sensitizing the R&D agents to the
importance of past for understanding the
present and planning for the future
To obtain historical accounts of changes in
demography, socio-economics, communication,
technology diffusion & adoption, farm
production, infrastructure, etc.
Procedure
Identify key informants.
Ask them to present a historical
development of their village vis-à-vis
facilities, production changes,
technologies, etc.
Trend analysis (time series data)
•Pest
•Yield
Remedial measures
•Productivity
•Resource use
Time Trend
It is a participatory visual method of analyzing the
trends and fluctuations in the variables that influence
village life.
Objectives
To identify the changes / fluctuations that have
occurred over a period of time in the variables
influencing village life.
To explore the ‘coping behaviour’ of villagers during
adversities.
Procedure
Time trends are usually depicted in graphics (bar/line
graphs) to show the trend of crop/animal production,
commodity prices, human/cattle population, etc.
Two separate time trend analyses have to be carried
out.
One analysis will focus on crop production, while the
other on animal production
Generate one graphic to show the trend of
production of commodity (e.g., trend in
wheat/milk/fish production during last 25 years)
Another graphic will focus on trend of price/net
returns/cost of production of the commodity
Procedure
Identify KIs
Focus interview on the trends of crop/ animal
production and prices/cost of production/net returns,
etc. of farm commodities
Explore for information of past 10 - 25 years
Try to locate the fluctuations like the ‘unusual highs’
and ‘unusual lows’ and explore the reasons thereof
Encourage KIs to narrate the coping mechanisms
during fluctuations and adversities
