JRP Submission ID#162
Title: Being Fully Informed, But Not Knowing What To Do
Category: Main Article
Submitted: Jan 22, 2009 (Abstract revised Feb 11, 2009)
Size: About 4,000 words

** ABSTRACT

To discuss the role that the government has to play is an old story. Certainly research has been done in the theoretical ground, but to discuss it from the practical ground, by collecting observations in a similar way as the natural science do is just not viable. People react to the act of being observed and to stabilise it is impossible. Accordingly, it is necessary to begin the scientific conversation on a different framework; rather than discussing the role in terms of expectations, maybe it would be proper to do it in the context of actions; rather than using adjectives, to use verbs. This implies a different way to do research. It requires organising what will be observed before it can be studied. To introduce certain (self-)organisation on the observed.

As an instance of the approach, this paper presents different perspectives about the role that an institution (the Instituto de Planeacion Municipal, IMPLAN) should play for improving the collective performance of a Mexican municipality. Some of their members consider themselves to be there just to advise other areas of the local government; meanwhile, others think that they should be more active on helping others to improve, by informing their actions. The author claims that both viewpoints are very close, as an advice is a particular type of information with a specific linguistic structure. The difficulty rests on recognising the quality of the advice (information). This is related to the capability to link others' experiences with our expectations, and to be able to reckon possibilities of success. In order to find a high-quality guarantor for improvement several approaches have been proposed. Usually, these are exercises for replacing people from acting as guarantors with superior sources of "authority." In some sense it refers to developing advices that reflect "local knowledge." This paper explores if advising (and informing) is enough guarantor for improving collective action. Through this paper we recognise some limitations and propose a different approach: to help people on organising themselves in such a way that they become "strong actors." This requires enhancing collective action by introducing participants to a language supportive enough for the development of an arena for disagreement and resistance.

In order to illustrate the problem and the proposed approach, an example is provided from the Instituto de Planeacion Municipal (IMPLAN), a Mexican institution.

Keywords: strong actors; collective improvement; high-quality guarantor; knowledge; information

** SOME NOTIONS USED IN THE ARTICLE

The article mentions:

Simon's notion of satisficing
knowledge for doing something
quality of advice
capability to link others' experiences with our expectations
high-quality guarantor for an advice
extended knowledge
local knowledge
system dynamics
ordering and re-ordering what is observed
replacing people from acting as a guarantor (e.g. priests or academics)
traps of induction
Doing something in order to do something else

** EXCERPTS

To know demands putting things together in order to make comparisons, and afterwards re-order them to see the same from a different perspective (scientific method). There are cases where descriptions about the comparisons show some sort of stability (pattern). These descriptions might be used by people in diverse places at different times to observe the same (or to report that they observe the same). When this is possible, the description (statement) can be used as a tool for recognition; it becomes "knowledge." This process would give the participants the capability to recognise (discriminate) something from something else. In this approach, the first step to know what to do is related to a process able to re-organise (re-order) what is observed. . . This kind of exercise is not related to what needs to be changed -- e.g. where to put more police force, how much to increase the budget, etc. What we need is to identify how to organise people in such a way that people are able to reduce (control) crime, and crime fear is diminished.

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Reviewers familiar with these issues may kindly respond.

DP
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