Fugitive and codified knowledge: implications for communities struggling to control the meaning of local environmental hazards

The purpose of this qualitative research was to determine the ways that knowledge is constructed and used by emergent citizen's groups (ECGs are grassroots, action‐oriented, problem‐solving groups) engaged in environmental conflicts, and by a state government environmental regulatory agency that interfaced with them. Four historical‐organizational/observational case studies of conflict dynamics involving ECGs and the government were undertaken. Case studies in a qualitative research paradigm were used since they particularize information in a complex, process oriented manner that reports life experiences. All of the grassroots groups in the study cited ‘education’ as a goal of their organizations. The research documented the struggle for who controls the meaning of hazardous scenarios. ECGs were cultural producers at the local level, developing the intellectual and moral faculties of the community, especially through collective education and collaborative and social learning. The state agency, on the other hand, constructed intellectual and moral capacity from a bureaucratic locus. As such, both were instrumental in community learning, as well as sites of contest. The results show that regulators most frequently relied on ‘codified’ or ‘official’ knowledge that reproduced the status quo. ECGs constructed ‘fugitive’ knowledge that escaped the control of institutional specialists, and that reinforced their local (and at times global) interests. Bureaucrats seldom used local knowledge to make environmental decisions. Citizens responded with rebellious collective action, quiescence and at times despair.     

A DISCRIMINATION INDEX FOR ITEMS IN INSTRUMENTS USING GROUP RESPONSES

Item discrimination for instruments used to measure characteristics by means of group responses is stressed. It is argued that a percentage of the total sum of squares which is due to groups can appropriately be used as an index of item discrimination.     

THE RELATION OF SCALE FINENESS TO GRADE ACCURACY

The use of broad categories in grading is likely to increase the relative amount of error present in the measures on which the grades are based. This is true regardless of the degree of inaccuracy of those measures. An example to illustrate this generalization and an explanation of its basis in psychometric theory are presented.