Critical incidents analysis: Mismatching expectations and reconciling visions in intercultural encounters

Conflicts among stakeholders are common in Community Informatics (CI) research. They often derive from mismatches of expectations and are exacerbated by communication and intercultural issues. Such mismatches are breaking points that might compromise the relationship of trust among stakeholders and, ultimately, project outcomes. In CI, reflecting on moments of conflict and mismatch might help researchers attend to assumptions and interpret aspects of communities’ cultural context, as well as their own. This reflection should contribute to a closer connection among stakeholders and sustainable project outcomes. In this paper, we present the Critical Incidents Analysis (CIA) Framework (Brunello, 2015), a tool that was conceived within the Community and Development Informatics field with the aim to reflect upon incidents and misunderstandings among stakeholders, their different cultural perspectives, and – eventually – deal with project breakdowns. We apply the framework to our own research, a posteriori, where we analyze conflicts and mismatches of expectations arisen during our fieldwork. We conclude that the CIA framework, applied “a posteriori” to our cases, was a useful tool to better analyze and report on our research, and to recast incidents as opportunities to enable a deeper understanding and build trust among stakeholders.