In the first few weeks of school, we began our descent into the world of analysis and numbers from our aerial viewpoint of concepts and theories of 160. We delved into questions because questions are the root of all research, particularly the research we will embark on during this class and future ENVS courses and projects. There are four different types of questions we discovered – descriptive, explanatory, evaluative, and instrumental. Descriptive questions seek answers to questions like “what is going on??” Basically, this first level of inquiry aims to discover just what is happening. Next, we ask explanatory questions to uncover why this thing is happening, to put it in context and relate it to other things that are also happening, or perhaps not happening. Once we describe and explain this thing, the next step is to evaluate exactly what makes it important, compelling, connected, a problem, a solution, or something else entirely. After we figure out the “so what??” we can pose instrumental questions to dive into what can be done moving forward. All of these questions can be asked about issues, systems, objects, and places and how these categories may intersect.
Answers to these questions can also be organized into a sort of hierarchy. The first, most basic “answer” would be data. Data is raw information, oftentimes manifested as a measurement either qualitative or quantitative. Environmental Analysis so far appears to be a class very much rooted in data. After data in complexity comes a method, or a way to analyze data. This can be something we do to collect data or even a way to collect data, in which case sometimes the method precedes the data. From data and methods, we can propose a broad explanation called a theory. For example, Malthusianism and ecological modernization are theories which attempt to describe why something is happening and what we should do. Even bigger than theories are frameworks, general philosophies about knowledge or reality. Wow. Very big.
How have we encountered these basic research foundations so far? We have gathered data about a variety of “environmental variables” from around the world (according to the Lewis & Clark Abroad Programs) and put them through methods of spreadsheet analysis. We have followed the directions of our first lab and produced our first lab write-up . Without questions, the data would have no focus, no intent, no context. It would just be random numbers with labels with no significance. Data is a tool and a window, but not a complete picture and certainly not a conclusion.