Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research, Data & MethodsSefydliad Ymchwill Gymdeithasol ac Economaid, Data a Dulliau Cymru

Researching local civil society:

Conceptual and methodological issues

Robin Mann, Alex Plows and Corinna Patterson

School of Social Sciences

Bangor University

Research focus• Provide new knowledge of civil society by

understanding the way it links to different place and spaces;

• Focus on localities, space, place as “method” for researching civil society differently;

• Report on pilot fieldwork in Wales as a starting point of investigation;

• Highlighting methodological and ethical issues encountered

Locating civil society:Place, space and participation

• Civil society is a contested term; but can be defined as a space of collective action that is distinct from state and economy as well as from the private sphere.

• Refers to a broad field of activity – e.g. voluntary association, social movement activity, labour unions, as well as cultural and leisure societies.

• Contrasting theoretical models, e.g. social capital vs. social movement approaches to civil society;

• Capturing the broader field of civil society, achieved through the study of localities;

• We are proposing an analytical shift away from ‘organisations’ per se, and on to the spaces and places in which a range of civil society activity takes form.

• The focus on localities raises a different set of conceptual and methodological issues which need to be considered.

Civil society and community

• Community studies in Wales (e.g. Frankenberg 1957, Rees 1950, Emmett 1964);

• Village on the Border could be understood as a study of local civil society – chapel, community council, football club, brass band, carnival;

• Critiques of “bounded communities”:

“any attempt to tie particular social relations to specific geography milieu is a singularly fruitless exercise” (Pahl 1966)

“there is no good reason to suppose that everything is connected to everything else and there is even less reason to suppose that this should be the case in any locality (Stacey 1969:138)

Kinship ties: Linking networks to spaceEmrys Jones (1960) “Tregaron: The Sociology of a Market Town in Central Cardiganshire”. In Davies, E. and Rees, A. D. (eds.) Rural Welsh Communities. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. Page 97.

Localities as sites of activity

Recent theorizing of socio-spatial relations across the social sciences (Marston et al 2005, Jessop et al 2007);

Localities not as autonomous bounded entities but as coherent sites of activity, and as comprising of specific spaces and meeting places in which activities can be observed.

Such specific spaces can include community centres, sports centres, chapels, as well as more open or fluid spaces such as the street, the park, or outside the school gates.

Spatial representations of “the site”:The Parish of Llanfihangel yng Ngwynfa

Alwyn D. Rees (1950) Life in a Welsh Countryside. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. Page x.

Survey from the AirT. Jones Hughes (1960) “Aberdaron: The Social Geography of a Small Region in the Llyn Peninsular”. In Davies, E. and Rees, A. D. (eds.) Rural Welsh Communities. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. Page 126.

“Pentrediwaith”(“Village of no work”)Ronald Frankenberg (1957) Village on the Border: A Social Study of Religion, Politics and

Football in a North Wales Communtiy. Chicago: Waveland Press. Page 16.

Methodological/ethical issues

How to “locate” or “place” civil society while…

• Maintaining anonymity and confidentiality

• Negotiating disagreements and dislikes between participants

• Providing local feedback

Pilot fieldwork in a North Wales locality• Localities conceived as coherent sites of activity as well as containing

specific spaces and meeting places in which activities can be observed.

• Such specific spaces can include community centres, sports centres, chapels, as well as more open or fluid spaces such as the street, the park, or outside the school gates. – e.g. “convergence space” (Routledge 2003)

• The site:– A cluster of four former slate quarry villages in a North Wales locality: Aber, Brynlle, Pen

Mynydd and Pentre;

– Majority Welsh speaking area; history of liberal nonconformism;

– Area of residence for several activists (Welsh nationalist, language, environmental);

– Community development schemes; community workers;

– Community associations, sports clubs;

• Methods:– In-depth interviews with 10 individual activists

– Observation at events, meetings, and in spaces (e.g. community centre)

BrynlleBrynlleAberAber

PentrePentre

Pen MynyddPen Mynydd

Communities 1st

Top-down &Inclusive

CommunityCentre

School gate

ChurchChapel

SianGlobal & LocalFair TradeLanguage –CymunedChapel/churchSchool gate

Antur Abercym – Developing local businessesBottom-up and exclusive

BrynCommunity Land TrustLocal housingSustainable GwyneddLocal ownership

GarethTai LleolLanguageLocal & GlobalAntur Natlle

Cllr J Jones

AndrewTrenaturEnvironmentCommunity agenda

Brynlle Environment

Group

Brynlle Partnership

Group

IanHistory / archeologyEnvironment

Emily

Farmers Market

Bilingual

Bilingual

Meinir

“Locating” the issue

“There have been times when Fairtrade has had quite a bit of support. ‘Pentre’ was on television with Fairtrade – an example of a village that does a lot of work. I think its on the internet and there has been quite a but of support with Christian Aid also there was a protest we wanted to arrange outside the chapel to report on worldwide poverty and a lot of people came. The event that we organised was happening all around Britain, and we organised one in Pentre, which drew a lot of people”– Spaces (Pentre, outside the Chapel)

– Organisations (Fairtrade, Christain Aid)

– Issues (Poverty, fairtrade)

– Scale (all around Britain, worldwide)

– Modes of action (local protest, television, internet)

Local divisions and fragmentations

“You understand why I may not want to talk to you. It is very personal and it’s explosive local issues and so forth…”

“if you put your head above the parapet around here it comes to be shot at, and I am not willing to do it. That was the term he used, if you put your head above the parapet, you get shot at”

“It was apparent early on that there was a local power structure around locally elected officials, councillors who felt they were responsible for running things and who didn’t care for things coming in from the outside”

Concerns around the management of community development schemes

“it hasn’t brought the community together, I think it has actually divided the community these last, you know 6 or 7 years, that you have had these little sort of splinter groups… these independent groups, doing their own thing and quite strong in their own little way, but not coordinating and co operating with each other, which is part of what Community First was meant to be with people working together… “ (Megan)

Discussion

• Ethical implications of contextualising people, organisations and networks in relation to space and localities– Anonymity, informed consent, stakeholder feedback

• Could the same “classic” studies be carried out today within a different methodological and ethical climate?

• Different/innovative ways of spatially re-contextualising “the site”