Description

Integrality refers to the circumstance or place of being total and complete. Integral
research investigates approaches to interventions and produces social transformation.
In pursuance of that viewpoint realising the ability and potential of individuals,
enterprises and societies to impact communities, a southern integral research
trajectory is pursued in quest of social transformation of smallholder farmers in
Zimbabwe. Integral research seeks to unify various researchers and, through its
multiplicity, holistically impact the various aspects of farmers’ lives. The research is
founded on the principle that 'Integral Development' as a theory can be adopted and
can significantly and sustainably transform not only individuals, organisations and
communities but also the agricultural sector with the agenda of alleviating imbalances
in diverse contexts and worlds.
Through an Inner Calling of the Researcher driven by a passion for changing the
circumstances of an identified community of small-scale farmers, an outer call
culminates in establishing a social enterprise. The latter engages other stakeholders
through innovative social collaborations, all bent on inclusively co-creating solutions
to long-standing challenges and gaps. Challenges are dire as poverty is taken as a
matter of fact among the smallholder farmers at the bottom of the pyramid. The
literature review of a relational Southerner pointed to a host of known challenges. The
research led to why foreign support only categorised poverty and consistently rated
poverty among African farmers. Compartmentalised aid and partial humanitarian
strategies are repeatedly crafted to deliver short-term assistance, handed down to the
communities in ways aloof from the reality and gravity of poverty. The Researcher is
disturbed and seeking an ecosystem approach to resolving the long-standing gaps
and challenges. The project uses integral approaches like the GENE model
complemented by the 4Cs and CARE approaches to activate the community,
awakening consciousness by holistically interrogating the southerner’s relational
approach. It entails using descriptive and feministic phenomenology. They culminate
in a participatory action approach to establish a context the way it is felt, articulating
the daily experience to facilitate a transformative process that capacitates the
community of farmers. Embracing Da Vinci’s TIPS model, which centres on
Technology, Innovation, People and Systems, TIPS guides the research and how relationships could help the flow of energy towards the desired transformation.
Challenges are turning into opportunities and solutions attained through the inclusive
social innovation process. Community participation led to the ownership of the issues
and innovation of goods and services that speak to problems and gaps as they were
felt. The solutions, especially technology justice, were profound as simple tools and
integral knowledge exchange from a consultative process resulted in integrally
research-based innovations. The learning mode changed from 1 to 2, and social
learning skills were adopted.
Frugality was central to co-creation, and the urgency of the matter was responded to
using an open-source platform that hastened the effecting and embodiment of various
innovations. The local social innovators stood on the shoulders of global giants in
areas of technological innovations, resolving challenging poverty with a stubborn rural
face.
The GENE Model central to the research was epitomised as the four worlds of the
smallholder farmers' life were holistically revisited. A Heritage Communiversity was
established to enhance inclusion through social learning. With the Idea of
Communiversity, the Four Worlds Approach provided an interpretive lens; technology
was delivered from the north, and conscious evolution and inspiration in the east. The
South brought about community learning, healing and restoration, and the West reestablished
social enterprises that were refurbished into social laboratories and
enterprises. This vital response transformed the local education systems as integral
knowledge is exchanged, transforming farming into viable businesses (integral
enterprises) that take cognisance of the size and needs of the smallholder farmer.