Chapter Seven: How MSC Compares to Other Approaches and Epistemologies

Chapter Seven: How MSC Compares to Other Approaches and Epistemologies

We believe that MSC can be successfully implemented without a strong understanding of the theory. If you just want to know about the practicalities, you may not need to read this Chapter. But for those readers who enjoy a foray into theory, this Chapter examines validity in MSC and how it fits with other approaches and epistemologies.

Appreciative inquiry

MSC has been likened to Appreciative inquiry (Hammond, 1996), Ford and Graham (2002) describe MSC as an example of how appreciative inquiry can be used in monitoring and evaluation.

Participatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E)

MSC could be considered a form of PM&E, an umbrella term that describes various types of participatory M&E conducted in the development sector. However, MSC differs from many other forms of PM&E in that MSC data is in the form of text-based accounts of reported changes. The way the MSC approach involves participatory analysis and selection of stories appears to be unique. MSC also differs in the extent to which it uses existing organisational power structures instead of trying to reach conclusions through the use of more ad hoc and egalitarian processes.

Case studies and vignettes

Like case studies, anecdotes and vignettes used in reports and evaluations, MSC generates data in the form of text. All these methods are similar in that they often involve thick description (description that is rich in context) or stories.

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  who selected the story, and what their role was
  
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  how they selected the story—from how many others and over what period
  
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  why they chose this story over other stories.
  

The MSC approach generates thick descriptions about change on a systematic, transparent and accountable basis.

Evolutionary epistemology and MSC

Rick’s writings about MSC within the discourse of development studies and organisational learning have been informed by a body of theory known as evolutionary epistemology (Campbell, 1969). Within evolutionary epistemology evolution is seen as a learning process, and learning by individuals is seen as a sub-set of this process. Learning is defined as the selective retention of information, and information is defined as "differences that make a difference" (after Bateson, 1979). The core of the evolutionary learning process is what is known as the evolutionary algorithm, which involves the re-iteration of variation, selection, and retention processes. This can be seen in both organic and cultural evolution. Populations of animals contain diverse characteristics, and some of these confer survival advantages to the animals concerned and thus are selectively retained over time. Those animals reproduce, and amongst there descendants diversity of characteristics will again emerge. Similarly, in cultural evolution, the meaning of a given event (e.g. circumcision) may be interpreted in a variety of ways by people. Some of those interpretations may have a better fit with the world view of the people concerned, and are thus become more prevalent than other views held in the past. Within this newly dominant view, further variations of interpretations may emerge, and so on.
The MSC process within CCDB was an attempt to design a structured social process that embodied the three elements of the evolutionary algorithm: variation, selection, and retention, re-iterated through time. The entities subject to selection were events, and the associated interpretations of these events. The environment in which the process was taking place was the organisation using MSC. Selection took place when field staff selectively identified what they saw as significant changes. These changes (and interpretations of them) were then retained through being documented, and communicated to others further up the organisational hierarchy. When grouped together at that next level, these accounts (and interpretations) recreated a diversity, which was then subjected to further selection, and then the retention of the most significant of all these significant changes. The SC stories that survive through this iterated process are those that fit the organisation best, in terms of its values, concerns and aspirations, at that moment in time.
This process involved two levels of selection processes, which relate to the concept of first and second order learning, which was originally developed by Bateson. First order learning involves the selection of those changes which have the best fit with a given organisational value, or set of values, such as the importance of increasing beneficiaries control over the use of development aid. Second order learning involves the selection of some values from amongst others, which have the best fit within the organisation, according to any higher order concerns. For example, the very survival of the organisation. There can also be an element of self-organised selection here as well, as some values may be more consistent with each other than others, and thus more likely to be retained over time.
As with organic evolution, there is no guarantee of "good" outcomes from this type of learning process. The "difference that makes a difference" is that unlike many evolutionary processes, the MSC process is transparent. By increasing the visibility of existing processes of organisational observation and judgment, there is more room for participants to make conscious choices about change. And these choices become available to a wider section of the organisation than might normally be the case. In this respect there is some similarity with the intended process within psychotherapy.

MSC under a constructivist lens

With a background in program evaluation, Jess tends to frame MSC within the constructivists’ subjective epistemology, focusing on the process of increasing stakeholder understanding of the program and the way others view it. For example, in MSC, stakeholders interpret their experiences with a program and record stories about instances they consider to represent the most significant change. They also record why they consider this change significant. Thus, when a beneficiary tells a story of significant change, she or he interacts with the world and draws meaning from it, and it is in the telling of the story that meaning is constructed. Then, when reviewers read and evaluate the story, they engage with it and construct a further new meaning. When this is done in a group, construction is shared. In MSC, the criteria used to interpret a story are clearly documented, made transparent and kept with the story. This transparency makes the whole process even more open to new and more sophisticated constructions of meaning, because in MSC we know who selected each story, in what context, and for what reason.
However, MSC also includes a verification stage in which the stories can be amplified and checked to see if the events they describe really occurred. This suggests that MSC cannot be conceptualised under a radical constructivist ontology, where ‘facts’ are considered to be a function of multiple realities as much as values. For these reasons, Jess suggests that MSC is best described as employing a constructivist epistemology and a realist ontology. Rick concurs with the description, and adds an ironic twist suggesting that the MSC is a form of ‘practical postmodernism’.
MSC has also been likened to some of the constructivist evaluation approaches referred to in the international program evaluation literature. One of the best known constructivist approaches is Fourth Generation Evaluation (FGE) (Guba & Lincoln 1991). FGE and MSC both assume that program stakeholders have different values that need to be explored during evaluation, but use different methodologies. While both are participatory, dialogical approaches, FGE is not usually conducted as a ongoing process and does not explicitly involve the collection of stories. It has also been argued that FGE tends to be more of a theoretical position than a practical methodology (Fishman, 1992). MSC was and is developing through praxis; having been implemented numerous times throughout its evolution, it is certainly practical in orientation.

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