Research vs. Action...how soon is now?

This drought/famine and first-hand 'development' experience has really made me aware of the (perceived?) dissonance between research and "doing," as my colleague put it the other day. We were talking about an organization that has been 'working' in northern Kenya, researching ways to make arid and semi-arid lands more productive. My colleague thought the organization was useless because it hadn't "done anything" for northern Kenya; nothing was different. Another of my colleagues suggested that perhaps the organization's function was simply to do research and not necessarily implement any changes. "We want to see people changing northern Kenya," my colleague replied, what good was it if they just collected data?

I have experienced this tension before. When I studied abroad in southern Kenya, we finished our semester with what was essentially a research project. We collected data on how land use systems impacted vegetation (how expanding agriculture and growing livestock populations depleted the amount of land covered by nutrient-rich, native plants) and then asked local community members for their insight into why vegetation composition was changing. We did vegetation sampling and conducted interviews. My time in southern Kenya coincided with an intense drought, stressing an already stressed landscape and pushing local human, wildlife and livestock populations to the edges of survival. Our survey asked questions like "Have you noticed a change in vegetation in the area?," answerable by a quick look around at barren, dusty pasture (see above) and thin, worn cows. After politely answering our often-redundant questions, interviewees were given a chance to question us. Almost always, they wanted to know 'What will you do with this research? Will it be used to help us?' I struggled to find an answer, saying we were writing reports and making recommendations, that we would present our research at an open forum, which they were welcome to attend...but the real answer was that we were researching for research's sake. My paper would not lead to any tangible, direct, immediate change.

I think what it comes down to is different metrics for progress...different concepts of work and of time. Ideally, research and theory inform action on the ground, but it takes awhile. For some people, that time is necessary. For others, it is gratuitous. And it gets in the way.

After being up to my eyes in theory at school, I thought coming here would be a breath of fresh air. I would be affecting clear and immediate change, I would be working on the ground. Instead, I find myself in research's corner, advocating for more time, more reading, more theory...