Research & Reconnaissance

We bring to bear an unusual fund of more than 24 years experience in field research and 13 years full-time advanced training in socio-cultural anthropology, linguistics, the cognitive sciences, systems theory, education, and related areas, upon problem sets that exist in the real world. Research efforts involving extremely complex problem sets have been successfully concluded, and our capacity to accomplish this kind of work in a timely and efficient manner has improved with experience.

 Preliminary reconnaissance to a problem area provides a means of gaining a realistic context and understanding of the problem, and provides the starting point for drafting a research proposal as a second stage that will conclude in the application of working designs that are tailored to resolve the problem set. Reconnaissance is a necessary first step to any problem set or area, and provides leverage and decisive control that results in successful completion and results in the research cycle.

The research cycle will generally consist of the following sequence:

1. Preliminary notification and identification of a problem area.

2. Implementation of initial reconnaissance into the problem area in an appropriate manner, usually involving multiple methodologies.

3. Analysis of the results of the initial reconnaissance and contextualization of the problem area in a larger knowledge framework.

4. Drafting of a research design and proposal specifying the main conclusions and specific applications expected from the main research, the methods of operationalization of the research, expectations of what kind of information may be found, and a budget of the costs of implementation and schedule of the time frame for implementation.

5. Organization for research and initialization of the main research effort, usually broken into beginning, middle and terminal phases with breaks between each phase during which rethinking and reformulation of the research design leads to modification of methods, expectations and results to be more realistically adapted to the problem set.

6. Removal from the field context of research of data and specimens, and analysis of the data and specimens in a separate framework.

7. Write up and reporting/publication of the results of the analysis.

8. Design of applications designed for problem resolution based upon the analysis, and the conduct of any follow-up research that may be the by-product of the previous phases.

This research cycle may be truncated to a matter of a few works using quick and "dirty" methods, and elaborated to the point of requiring several years for full completion of rather elaborate and refined methodologies. More reasonably, research cycles can run from a two or three months to several months time. It should also be noted that one research cycle, successfully completed, will generate leads for multiple other research cycles as a result.

In any problem set, there are implicit dimensions and knowledge that is not obvious in the surface patterning. In human systems particularly, there is a pattern of symbolic obfuscation of hidden realities that are in the background of the setting. In this case, people are judged by their actions rather than their words, and by what they may have done, or could have done, rather than by what was done. To be effective, research must bring into clear focus the implicit knowledge and structural-functional relations that exist in any system, and seek to understand in a holistic manner how the system functions as part of a larger framework of relationships and possibilities.

It is our hope in the not too distant future to be able to assemble a team framework reflecting a range of diverse competencies, skills and expertise,  for conducting research and reconnaissance into problem sets in an efficient and effective way, building upon the two-person model we have already articulated in previous contexts.

The keyword in understanding what makes successful research is "systematic" that implies a professionalism to the problem set, an objectivity and a thorough exhaustiveness of approach that leaves no stone unturned and no possibility unconsidered. This is what separates the Saturday Scholar from the Professional Researcher in any field of knowledge and application.