|
Human Needs and Human Harms: Some Evidence from Rural Ethiopia Summary Philippa Bevan and Alula Pankhurst This paper describes one phase in an ongoing 'interductive'
research programme designed to contribute to the development of a conceptual
framework, and related research instruments, that can be used in any cultural
context to identify: An interductive research methodology involves interactive and iterative phases of conceptual analysis and field research. Section 2 of the paper describes a conceptual model for researching people's human needs empirically with roots in the work of Doyal and Gough (1991), Ryan and Deci (2000) and Harré (1979, 1983, 1994). It proposes four types of human need: for competence (analytically separable into needs of the body, mind and soul); for relationships; for status/identity; and for autonomy. It highlights two important aspects of life likely to have an impact on the experiencing of needs and harm: human development/ageing and gender. Section 3 describes the fieldwork context: this research was done as part of the Ethiopia WIDE project conducted in 20 variegated rural sites in Ethiopia between July and September 2003 by a pair of researchers, one male and one female. In Section 4 the research instruments for exploring human needs and human harm are presented, and six ways in which the data might be used in comparative analyses are identified (1) produce a list of all needs and harms identified by
respondents in all 20 rural sites; Section 5 focuses on human needs. First the data are used to suggest some additions to the WED Wellbeing Essentials Framework. Then we use them to explore the ways in which gender and/or age affect(s) both needs and forms of appropriate needs satisfiers. We discuss needs whose specificity relates to gender and/or age; how the balance between different needs varies as a result of variations in gender and age; and universal needs with satisfiers which relate to gender and age. In Section 6 reported human harms to men, women, boys, girls and babies are arranged in a matrix in relation to the four human needs identified in the conceptual framework: competence, autonomy, relation and meaning. The data show that there are two main causes of harm: absences of needs-satisfiers or resources, and harmful presences of events and actions/activities. In the literature much attention has been paid to what poor people do not have that means that their needs are not met, resulting in harm but much less to what people do have in terms of harm-causers. In Ethiopia respondents have identified the following: · Natural events, e.g. rain failure, frost Using illustrations from the data Section 7 describes four ways in which different needs and harms may interact, raising issues related to choice, unequal power relationships and inter-personal responsibilities, intra-personal vicious circles. Some needs compete with others offering a choice of potential harms. The failure to meet a need, or a particular harm, can have knock-on effects. And the meeting of one person's met needs may equate with harm to somebody else. In Section 8 we take a reflexive look at what we have done, express some doubts about the whole process, particularly in the light of cross-cultural and translation problems. Section 9 draws a number of conclusions: Substantive conclusions Future research |