A Re-reading and Critique on Methodology of Local Communitie's Development Studies

Local community is considered the last layer of cultural originality and intact, homogeneous identity. Despite their strength points, the studies on local communities lack methodological precision. The dominant approach of these studies is mostly questionnaire based surveys under the influence of positivist sociology; in which hypothesizing is the predominant logic. In this way, there is a weak relationship between the problems and methods in local community studies. Survey studies in the local contexts do not have an applicable methodological mechanism for understanding the native rationality. Hence, it will cause some deficiencies and incorrect reductions in understanding the local contexts which sometimes leads to contradictory and irrelevant results to the problems of the local contexts. The missing point in these studies is "understanding the native rationality".
This article starts with a theoretical review on the concept of local community. Then, with taking a stand on phenomenological anthropology, reviews and criticizes some important issues in positivist methodology and shows how the shallow, unwarranted, often misleading application of statistic methods in local communitie's studies is not satisfactory. The argument is that the application of phenomenological attitude in the studies of local communitie's development not only increases the attention to the marginalized and abandoned groups and situates them inside the society, but also activates the potentials and makes development as a possible and achievable goal for local communities. On another level, it will provide groundwork in order to reflect on the native actions approaches more than before.