(3) Historical Context

It's near impossible to solve a problem effectively without knowing what causes it, and the root causes may have been set in place long ago. Whether it's the history of colonization, slavery, neoliberal reform, amalgamation of businesses, or a theory that got adopted, you can learn about that initial spark and discover how you might make a similar sized impact. Historical impacts of protests, wars, economic depressions etc are well recorded, but there are much deeper and less visible changes which sent history in one direction versus the other. A paper written in a university, or a policy enacted with unintended consequences, or an institutional culture in a certain organisaiton sparked by a specific leadership style a long time ago - these will give you clues about how to affect the problem itself.

Think of the value of looking into history as being similar to a doctor looking at a patient's medical history. Does high blood pressure run in the family? How often do you exercise? Have you ever smoked? So often the disease that doctors treat have a cause which isn't obvious because it's not something that just happened one day, it had a long series of inputs leading up to an overall issue.

Looking at the history of your problem is more than just a root cause analysis - it's a lesson in how change happens. You're designing a way to resolve an issue. You're designing a way to transform a system. So look at how that system has been transformed before. What is the collective history of this issue?

Exercise

Timeline

Draw a timeline across many pieces of paper on a wall. Mark today's date at the far right on the line - 'the present day'. Now the rest of the line is the past.

Focus on the problem you're aiming to solve, or the community you want to have better outcomes for. Think through what country you're interested in, what currency and economies these people are part of, what kinds of technology have featured in their lifestyle (e.g. cars vs bikes, appliances vs hand labour), and any other key aspects of the demographic context of these people affected by this issue such as colonial invasions, neocolonial economic interventions, maintenance of certain cultural or religious norms etc.

Have a computer based research session with yourself and your team if applicable. Explore the history of these people in this place. Track different political events, economic moments or big ups or downs, explore the history of the industries that build that area into what it is today, pay attention to cultural changes like big immigration phases, movements rising up to make social change, environmental changes like when a river was no longer a drinkable water source, institutional conditions like when local banks might have been replaced by national banks.

Come back together and draw up these key moments onto the timeline in front of you. Build a shared story of how this community, place and these factors have co-evolved.

Discuss what your new hunches are about what might have contributed to the issues that can be seen today, and therefore what could be tried in order to affect change. Things that have made big changes in the past teach you what might make change again now.

Elders (Going Deeper)

Find some older people in the community you're focussing on and use a Dialogue interviews method to uncover new information about the history of these people and this place. Some people would say this is necessary, not a bonus, but I do see the value of desk research for history as a starting point