Battling Against Social Divisions
Our social world is divided in multiple ways and these divisions hold us back from the greatness of shared prosperity. The way that we experience these social divisions reveal their complexity. We can enjoy privilege and endure marginalization within the same social space. For example, high-achieving Black women serving on the boards of highly respected nonprofits can connect with their White counterparts on the basis of their common experiences of balancing professional and family life yet have their voices minimized in board meetings. Racialized gentrification—where the steady flow of White incomers leads to the involuntary displacement of Black residents—can yield monetary benefits to Black homeowners, contrasting with the precarity that is usually experienced by Black renters.
Confronting Division and Profit-Maximization in Our Cities
Our cities and metropolitan areas represent the best and worse of who we are in this moment. We see with our own eyes the outcome of multiple and interwoven social divisions. We notice the fact that many of our community members are without a home and forced to grapple with nature. We’re aware that many people are technically housed, but are still forced to grapple with nature due to the inability to afford utility payments or due to shady landlord practices—sometimes both.
Urban Life: Matching Dynamism with Dynamic Research
As a researcher, I am a moth to the dynamic flames of metropolitan areas. There is so much to know, learn, and understand about cities and their satellite communities and how they both shape—and are shaped by—urban residents. Urban life is fundamentally constituted by people who are in relational networks with other people through ties of kinship, friendship, workplace colleagueship, and transactional acquaintanceships. These relational ties play out in urban areas that provide a unique environmental structure for the flow of opportunities and resources through social networks. At the same time, these same structures have a limited reach, and these limitations can be rooted in purposeful decision-making, benign neglect, or simply be an outcome of limited imagination.
Behind the Shell: The Luster of Variegated Gems
A meeting such as this seems like a beautiful cluster of precious jewels—pearls, rubies, diamonds, sapphires. It is a source of joy and delight. Whatever is conducive to the unity of the world of mankind is most acceptable and praiseworthy; whatever is the cause of discord and disunion is saddening and deplorable.
Beyond the Shell: Understanding Difference
If the flowers of a garden were all of one color, the effect would be monotonous to the eye; but if the colors are variegated, it is most pleasing and wonderful. The difference in adornment of color and capacity of reflection among the flowers gives the garden its beauty and charm.
Consultative Relational Research
Consultative Relational Research speaks to a model of service and a pivotal research focus. Our version of consultative research builds from the assumption that each of our clients have a unique story and contextual experience. We keenly listen for what is unique about each client, and build a collaborative approach that addresses their foremost research need in the most suitable manner and within the necessary scope.
The Best of Both Research Worlds
So far, we have noted requirements tied to deploying effective surveys and how useful qualitative methods are in generating the sentiments and experiences that lay the foundation for mutual understanding. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are fine to use by themselves, given the research question at hand, but using both methods together has proven to be especially powerful in helping organizations gain a more three-dimensional understanding of the social things they deem to be worthy of study.
Enriching Mutual Understanding with Rich Data
Mutual understanding is a powerful force for constructive social change. At the same time, it takes effort to get there, especially among people from diverse social backgrounds who have experienced life differently. Mutual understanding is built through unfettered dialogue, so facilitating mutual understanding from a research standpoint involves cultivating the right atmosphere, an active listening posture, and intense amount of re-listening to the dialogue to properly capture the meaning and implications of what was shared. Technology is cool, but there are no shortcuts here if the goal is gaining rich insights on the dialogical elements that can build mutual understanding and eventually translate it into constructive action.
The Five Cs of Survey Design
Surveys are a powerful means for gaining a better understanding of stakeholder sentiments and how they are feeling about their experiences. At the same time, the effectiveness of surveys are directly tied to the level of effort and expertise behind their design. Some of the most important characteristics of effective surveys can be broken down into the ‘five Cs.’
Social Relationships Create Social Reality
Kiaspo's Fundamental Assumptions
Advancing Together
The seed of social change is produced in the heart that looks around them and refuses to accept the status quo. This seed is nurtured by taking those humble first steps in the field of action and by forming those initial partnerships with other hearts who also recognize the need for change.
'New Worlds' for a Better World
Whether consciously or unconsciously, organizations either activate a world-building or world-receiving mode of operating. World-building organizations generate reciprocal flows of energy through constructive relationships that magnetize participation and fertilize growth. They exert a force on the world that galvanizes change, seeding inspiration along the way. World-receiving organizations take their cues from society as it exists, ever-primed to model their operations and relationships based on the reigning sociopolitical environment.