the whole society can provide a series of criteria for the initial analysis. Special importance is
attached to this method in the following situations:
a) The proposed group or institution is not or only minimally self-sufficient in its biogas
measures. It requires deliveries (material or service) from other groups, either a neighboring
village or another enterprise.
Such matters become relevant whenever certain regulations exist within the extensive
class system but do not appear within the local system. In such cases an investigation
has to take place, for example, whether neighboring groups who would have to deliver
substrate, would accept this.
This investigation is of great importance when within the target group a ’violation’ of
the class system is accepted. It is frequently found out afterwards that this ’violation’ is
not given because the essential suppliers do not accept their counterparts; now and
again it can be seen that certain groups within the target group only give their approval
because they are sure that the conditions negotiated would not be accepted by the
partner groups.
b) The implementation takes place within the context of a more extensive program, possibly
a pilot program. In this case it is not sufficient to obtain the acceptance only within the
temporary target group but an investigation into whether this model is acceptable for later
target groups has to be carried out.
Although it is in principle practicable to keep the model variable for later adaptation to
other target groups, it should not be overlooked that the interest of later target groups
will be affected by the pilot model. ’Violations’ against social norms which are
acceptable for the initial target group could be rejected in neighboring communities
and lead to a general rejection of the ’biogas project’. Consequently pilot models
should avoid ’far-reaching’violations even if these are locally possible.
Social regulations for the division of labor
Reasons for regulations on the division of labor
Social regulations for the division of labor can arise for the following reasons:
• Privileges of certain groups in taking over specific jobs or being released from less
desirable work. These privileges can stem from belonging to a social or ethnic group,
age group or sex.
• Social and traditional allocation of specific work for specific groups. The division of
labor among the sexes belongs here.
• ’Regulations’ on the division of labor caused by political or economic dependency
which means e.g. the necessity for the ’village rich’ to carry out certain tasks in order
to secure labor during agricultural seasons etc.
The regulations on the division of labor always prove to be an especially persistent
phenomenon; ’leading’ groupings frequently refuse to carry out socially or religiously ’banned’
jobs (handling feces, heavy manual work etc.) as they are ’non-rank conform’ and force
socially or economically dependent groups to take over these tasks. This applies especially
to the division of labor between sexes.
Difficulties in researching social regulations
To investigate in social regulations is difficult as their existence is often not admitted to
’strangers’, however strong their influence on the later course of the measures may be. It is
not an exception when, for example, in an interview a man agrees to take over a certain task
- but means in saying this that his wife or a person dependent on him will carry out the task.
For the interviewee this is no ’lie’; for him it is a matter of course that he means, by agreeing,
that he will allocate the task. In individual interviews this leads to wrong interpretations which
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