Social Analysis (ansos) is one of the methodologies developed to understand and delve into social reality. There are two approaches in ansos, namely the academic approach and the pastoral approach. The academic approach studies/analyzes specific social situations in truly abstract and objective ways, detailing all elements to be clearly understood. Meanwhile, the pastoral approach views reality in historical engagement, considering situations to take action. Thus, ansos is not just an expression of knowledge, but ansos is carried out more with the aim of dedicating to actions for justice.

Ansos focuses on the social system that needs to be analyzed in terms of time dimension (historical analysis) as well as according to space (structural analysis). Historical analysis examines changes in the social system over time. Structural analysis presents a representative part of the framework of a system at a particular moment in time. Both analyses must be carried out comprehensively and thoroughly.

In community planning, ansos becomes the most important supporting instrument. If in in class 1 you have been provided with materials or topics about action research, that is a small part of ansos. Ansos in this session is different from common ansos practices, which rely heavily on theory. Ansos in this session focuses more on reading data and analyzing findings from the processed data, which produce information.

This ansos class aims to obtain an overview of the social, economic, cultural, and ecological situations of all communities in the village/community. Although directly dealing with data, a brief introduction related to data assessment must still be related to history, structure, and various impacts of the issues that follow. After completing this material, participants are expected to be able to read and analyze actors, interests and relationships of the actors, as well as the constellation of resource ownership in the factual community situation.