[Stoves] Re: Response to Ron (about Leaping)- role of stove anthropologists in empowering stove users/producers to form & ask own questions


Stovers,

Relating to Ron’s quest for questionnaires about stove research, he wrote:

 I am NOT interested in standard stoves;  I want to know what was considered in the framework of TLUDs and biochar -both by Probec and World Bank (and anyone else).

[Here is my OPINION, without much documentation.]   When the people (stove users) and the researchers do NOT have awareness of what are TLUD stoves and their char-making capabilities, neither the people nor the researchers will include in questionnaires the issues that are most relevant to TLUDs / char making stoves.

Back in my student days (1964), I considered becoming an anthropologist.  But I rejected that profession for me because the instruction basically said “observe and report, but do not alter the society.”   I wanted then and still do want to alter societies in beneficial ways.  I would not have been a good anthropologist. 

When NEW material is intentionally not presented because the thinking is that “the people should design the stove”, there is no way that a regular cook is going to say “I would like a stove that produces charcoal.”   Too foreign a concept.  And if a questionnaire asked “Would you like a stove that makes charcoal while you are cooking?”, there would certainly be puzzled looks, maybe a few laughs, and the researcher would need to be prepared to justify the absurdity of such a question. 

There are many die-hard knowledgeable Stovers (including those who administer stove projects) who resist every aspect of TLUD stoves.  Why would they want questionnaires with questions that touch upon TLUD issues? 

Even when research projects are being designed, for many years TLUD micro-gasifier stoves were not included in the stoves for consideration.   And there are examples of projects that included (and spent money on) poorly designed stoves that are marginally TLUDs (Sampada is a leading example), and certainly did not include the strongest TLUD-ND design (Champion, from India).    Or they think that ACE / Philips or Biolite represent forced air TLUD-FA stoves.

About the above paragraph, some readers of this message do not know the differences between those named stoves, and yet they will make decisions about what stoves to include in funded research.   And the results are weak because of poor decisions at the beginning.

Ron, the questionnaires (if you find them) will not include many, if any, questions that relate to TLUD issues. 

As I said, that is my OPINION.

Paul

Doc  /  Dr TLUD  /  Prof. Paul S. Anderson, PhD  Email:  psanders@ilstu.edu  Skype:   paultlud    Phone: +1-309-452-7072  Website:  www.drtlud.com