Off the record, on point: The art of informal data collection

Introduction

A colleague has just defended her work at the University of Bayreuth. In her work, she used several research methods. However, what captured my attention and prompted my thoughts to write this reflection is an approach she is proposing: Hanging out with Judges.[1] As an approach, she advocates for dropping the Judicial Gowns and Wigs. Essentially, she believes that the actual talk and candid discussion of research topics, or any other topics, is given in events of relaxed moments. Reflecting on her approach made me think about the unconventional yet powerful ways I have encountered. So far, apart from this new approach, I have been looking at Dropping the Pen and Paper, Shutting off the Camera, and Switching off the Recorder as informal techniques aiding data collection. These are born from my work experience and interactions with different colleagues.

Beyond the bench

While working with a local organisation in Malawi, a research study on access to justice for women (unpublished) was commissioned. This study examined why women and children find it hard to approach formal courts to access justice. Some of the many reasons were the fear, oppressive, formal, intimidating, unfriendly, and inapproachable nature of the courts and other justice delivery systems, which has been verified through other studies.[2] So, when this colleague presented how she has managed to talk to the men and women of the bench at different benches in Africa, she slightly touched on this claim. However, she further suggested that the judges are chatty and normal outside their courtrooms, offices, robes and wigs. I think she also contended that sometimes, when they stripe off these formal court regalia, they are less robotic. “Suddenly, they’re more ‘let me tell you this funny story’ than ‘according to Article 19’” type of humans (she did not use these exact words; I am). Nonetheless, she said when the encounter is less formal, in a bar, at a restaurant, or in a car, these judges give candid and hearty discussions relevant to one’s quest for knowledge; hence, Hanging out with the Judges could be used as a research approach.

Inkless and paperless

Secondly, in my college days, we used to be engaged by a local organisation as Theatre for Development (TfD) Troupe members. In this work, we could go to rural communities to carry out research on topical issues not limited to child labour, violence against women and the right to education. Among other things, the TfD approach encourages community-embedded research. This is where you live in the community for at least two weeks. You eat with the people, dance with them, work in their fields and ‘be like them’.[3] In the process, using pen and paper as you chat with the people, which is research, is completely discouraged. It is contended that this process makes people perceive the research process as less intimidating, informal, and friendlier.[4] In such a state, you build trust, and they are more likely to give you more information. Here again, the informality kicks in and takes centre stage in the research process. It turns out that when you swap the pen and paper for a hoe, people talk.

No blinking lights

In another event in Uganda, while visiting a community on a project dealing with women’s access to land, a colleague asked me how I was doing research in Malawi. This time, we were working on a project on women’s access to land and their bargaining power.[5] In this project, we used action research to help communities understand the issue of access to and control over land. To find impactful case studies, we could interview individual women whose land has been dispossessed. These were recorded using a handheld recorder to be transcribed later. This colleague suggested that when I return and the interview is done, I should switch the recorder off and continue the conversation. She demonstrated this while we were in Uganda. This time around, when we were chatting with women, she stopped writing and just put the paper and pen on the mat in front of us and continued the conversation. Women talked. When I went back to Malawi, I switched off the recorder. I reckon more details from the case studies I wrote were from my memory other than the recording. Thus, no red light blinking judgementally on the recorder. Yet again, the informality that came with switched-off recorders is evident in this encounter.

Off-camera and no voice

Lastly, while researching child labour laws and community perspectives in Ntchisi, I decided to capture my research experience on video. So, the focus group discussions, key informant interviews, observations and all other processes are captured. Furthermore, I have deployed TfD as a research methodology (quite ambitious and demanding, I must say, but we will get there). So, during this process, the people would criticise different provisions of the law and suggest ways these provisions could have been drafted and how different institutions could work.  A majority of these are captured on video. After these performances, during the songs and dances marking the end of the day, different people, including Child Protection Workers, traditional leaders, children, and farm owners, say their goodbyes. They drop in a line or provide critical insights and information that are so key and speak directly to the research objectives. This is very good and likeable. Unfortunately, these sentiments were said off-camera when my colleagues had already packed the sound boom and secured their recording equipment. This is not a coincidence. It is very probable that people feel more comfortable being informal and speaking their minds when there are no cameras around.

Conclusion

All in all, whether it is Hanging out with the Judges, Dropping off Pen and Paper, Switching off the Recorder or Shutting off the Camera, there is something about informality and research. It is in the less formal or very relaxed moments when people engaged in a research process are most likely to diverge more and very critical information about a subject. One wonders, therefore, whether consent obtained at the start of these formal chats can be sustained and cover the materials you have found during these out-of-time encounters. Should we be informal all the way to find rich information? Is informality the unsung hero of research? Maybe research is informal in itself, and we are just trying to complicate the process with the formalities. The truth might be hiding at the bottom of a teacup or maybe in the last dance of the night. Obviously, that is why this piece is also relatively informal.   

[1] For more of her work on this, see “Hanging out” with judicial and legal elites: Reflections on researching “up” – EPub Bayreuth, University of Bayreuth African Studies Working Papers 36, BIGSASworks! 11. Bayreuth: Institute of African Studies.

[2] Schärf, W., Banda, C., Röntsch, R., Kaunda, D. and Shapiro, R.,‘Access to Justice for the Poor of Malawi? An appraisal of access to justice provided to the poor of Malawi by the lower subordinate courts and the customary justice forums. <https://www.gsdrc.org/docs/open/ssaj99.pdf> accessed 15 January 2025.

[3] Kamlongera, C., 2005. Theatre for development in Africa. Media and glocal change: Rethinking Communication for Development, pp.435, 450.

[4] So we were told during the training in Theatre for Development at CRECCOM <https://www.creccommw.org/blog> accessed 15 january 2025

[5] Banda, M.K.,Women’s access to land and their household bargaining power: a comparative action research in patrilineal and matrilineal societies in Malawi (IDRC Symposium, Nairobi, 14th-16th September 2010).