Volume 17 - Article 13 | Pages 369–388
The implications of long term community involvement for the production and circulation of population knowledge
| Date received: | 30 Mar 2007 |
| Date published: | 27 Nov 2007 |
| Word count: | 6436 |
| Keywords: | community, demographic surveillance system, fertility, health, knowledge, longitudinal, migration, mortality, South Africa |
| DOI: | 10.4054/DemRes.2007.17.13 |
Abstract
Demographic surveillance systems (DSS) depend on community acceptance and involvement to produce high quality longitudinal data. Ensuring community support also exposes power relations usually concealed in the research process. We discuss the Agincourt Health and Demographic Surveillance System in South Africa to argue that: 1) long-term presence and community involvement contribute to high response rates and data quality, 2) to maintain community support the project must demonstrate its usefulness, 3) reporting to community members provides valuable checks on the local relevance and comprehension of questions, and 4) community opinion can modify both wording and content of research questions.
Author's Affiliation
Sangeetha Madhavan - University of Maryland, United States of America
Mark Collinson - University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Nicholas W. Townsend - Brown University, United States of America
Kathleen Kahn - University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Stephen Tollman - University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research
»
“One hand does not bring up a child:” Child fostering among single mothers in Nairobi slums
Volume 46 - Article 30
»
Measuring extended families over time in informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya: Retention and data consistency in a two-round survey
Volume 38 - Article 44
»
Household structure vs. composition: Understanding gendered effects on educational progress in rural South Africa
Volume 37 - Article 59
»
Decomposing changes in household measures: Household size and services in South Africa, 1994–2012
Volume 37 - Article 39
»
Human capital on the move: Education as a determinant of internal migration in selected INDEPTH surveillance populations in Africa
Volume 34 - Article 30
»
Working with teams of "insiders": Qualitative approaches to data collection in the Global South
Volume 32 - Article 12
»
The age pattern of increases in mortality affected by HIV: Bayesian fit of the Heligman-Pollard Model to data from the Agincourt HDSS field site in rural northeast South Africa
Volume 29 - Article 39
Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research
»
Differences in all-cause mortality: A comparison between immigrants and the host population in Norway 1990-2012
Volume 34 - Article 22 | Keywords: longitudinal, migration, mortality
»
Gender and educational inequalities in disability-free life expectancy among older adults living in Italian regions
Volume 47 - Article 29 | Keywords: health, mortality
»
Lexis fields
Volume 42 - Article 24 | Keywords: fertility, mortality
»
Does moving for family nest-building inhibit mothers' labour force (re-)entry?
Volume 40 - Article 7 | Keywords: fertility, migration
»
Historical reproductive patterns in developed countries: Aggregate-level perspective
Volume 38 - Article 2 | Keywords: fertility, mortality
Articles
Citations
Cited References: 18
»View the references of this article
Download to Citation Manager
Similar Articles
PubMed
»Articles by Sangeetha Madhavan
»Articles by Nicholas W. Townsend
Google Scholar
»Articles by Sangeetha Madhavan
»Articles by Nicholas W. Townsend