Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING
1000 E UNIVERSITY AVE DEPARTMENT 3434
LARAMIE,WY 82071-2000
Performing Department
Agricultural And Applied Economics
Non Technical Summary
Utilizing a Community-based Participatory Research (CBPR) approach, this project seeks to uncover the common process and environmental characteristics of successful community civic engagement and coalition development activities. In general, the study will strive to understand, from a sociological perspective, why some communities are better able to address challenges and opportunities. The study will evaluate social theory on community organization and change. Special attention will be given to the social impact of development. This research project is especially interested in public programs (state, county and municipal) which utilize local civic engagement in their program design, development and implementation. Although there is a wide variety of use of the term community coalition, this study will focus on collective action of coalitions which have a public program component, such as, behavioral health activities (county substance abuse prevention, suicide prevention, wellness promotion, social services, etc.) and community development activities (economic development, housing, social services, etc.). Results should increase the ability to replicate successfulcommunity development activities and improve the application of social theory to the task of estimating the social impact of development.
Animal Health Component
80%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
10%
Applied
80%
Developmental
10%
Goals / Objectives
In general, the study will strive to understand, from a sociological perspective, why some communities are better able to address challenges and opportunities? The study will evaluate social theory on community organization and change. Special attention will be given to the social impact of development. This research project is especially interested in public programs (state, county and municipal) which utilize local civic engagement in their program design, development and implementation. Although there is a wide variety of use of the term community coalition, this study will focus on collective action of coalitions which have a public program component, such as, behavioral health activities (county substance abuse prevention, suicide prevention, wellness promotion, social services, etc.) and community development activities (economic development, housing, social services, etc.).Major Goal: To uncover the common process and environmental characteristics of successful community civic engagement and coalition development activities.Specific Objectives 1. Build a community-based participatory collaboration with key individual community leaders and program stakeholders. a. Obtain feedback to identify potential community organizations and coalitions.2. Build a community-based participatory collaboration with specific community organizations and coalitions. a. Identify successful civic engagement and/or development actions.3. Conduct community case studies to determine characteristics of successful civic engagement/development efforts. a. Individual interviews and focus group sessions to collect data on community success in civic engagement/development efforts.
Project Methods
It is anticipated that the research project will use a variety of ethnographic techniques. Early phases of building the Community-based Participatory Research (CBPR) collaboration will use semi-structured individual or small group interview and focus group process. All phases will draw upon secondary data to understand the community setting. The study may also utilize quantitative survey techniques. The mutual identification of topics for investigation by both participants and the research team will require a degree of flexibility in research methods. Implementing a mix-method approach incorporating both qualitative and quantitative techniques will support a triangulation of data and improved determination of patterns and themes in the case study. It is expected that the qualitative portion will include known and unknown participant observation, semi-structured individual interviews, focus group interviews, review of key public documents and observation visual community conditions and messaging.This project will build on the work of the Clues to Rural Community Survival published by the Heartland Center for Leadership Development (Luther and Wall, 1987). This landmark research focuses on the lessons to be learned by studying successful community development efforts. Utilizing community case studies, it identifies characteristics of rural communities coping with social and economic challenges and opportunities. This work has been revisited and updated twice, 1998 and 2008. Similar work on community building, Community Building: What Makes It Work (Mattessich and Monsey, 1997) mined the research literature to uncover factors that influence success. Another important contribution to this field of study is using the concept of Community Capitals Framework to understand community organization and change. In the study of Spiraling-Up: Mapping Community Transformation with Community Capitals Framework (Mary Emery & Cornelia Flora, 2006) the authors identified how using the framework encourages systemic thinking which can help identify indicators of success.Luther and Wall's (2008) clues to rural community survival has played an important role in community development research and practice. It has helped illustrate the importance of giving people a voice in community decision-making (Cummins, Petty, Hansen, Hoffman, & Wittman, 2012) and having an inclusive view of community (Emery, Fernandez, Gutierrez-Montes, & Butler Flora, 2007).This research has also contributed to the understanding of community capacity building (Fettig, 2007) and social capital (Nkosi, 2007). The work's contribution to the study of economic development is quite extensive and includes topics in entrepreneurial social infrastructure (Flora, Sharp, Flora, & Newlon, 1997), industrial targeting (Hughes, 2009), understanding mining communities (Kuyek, & Coumans, 2003) and tourism (Pfister, 2000). It has also contributed to research on community economic development competitiveness (Luther, 2007; McKee, Wall, & Luther, 1997) and economic development planning (Schaeffer & Loveridge, 2000; Woods, 1996).Mattessich, Monsey, and Roy's (1997) community building findings have been frequently cited in the research literature. A brief summary of recent material show that it has helped describe community engagement (Alvarado, Palmer, Schroeder, & Stephens, 2008), community capacity building (Aref & Redzuan, 2009; Checkoway, 2009; Nitzberg, 2005) and community asset development (Arches, 2001; Delgado & Humm-Delgado, 2013). It is often used to help define and describe community (Doberneck, Glass, & Schweitzer, 2010; Morris & Madsen, 2007 Press, 2010; Talen, 2000), community development (Benson, Leffert, Scales, & Blyth, 2012; Camino & Zeldin, 2006; Checkoway, 2011; Diers, 2004; Pastor, 2000) and community coalitions (Chavis, 2001; Wolff, 2001). Others looking at diverse citizen participation in decision-making (Camino, 2005), community social capacity and social capital (Chazdon & Lott, 2010; Phillips & Pittman, 2009) and the role of leadership in community-building (Milburn & Vail, 2010) have also drawn upon the work of Mattessich et al. (1997).Mapping community transformation with community capitals framework by Emery and Flora (2006) has helped inform many researchers. Topics include sustainable development processes (Gutierrez-Montes, Emery, & Fernandez-Baca, 2009; Pierce, & McKay, 2008), the analysis of community and economic development efforts (Flints, 2010; Gutierrez-Montes, Siles, Bartol, & Imbach, 2009; Rasmussen, Armstrong, & Chazdon, 2011; Winkler, Cheng, & Golding, 2012) and community capacity building (Saarikoski, Åkerman, & Primmer, 2012; Price et al., 2007; Williamson, Hesseln, & Johnston, 2012). Other authors have drawn upon the capitals framework to help describe human and cultural capital (Keys, Bussey, Thomsen, Lynam, & Smith, 2014), social capital (Mandell, 2010; Nunkoo, & Ramkissoon, 2012; Rogers, Halstead, Gardner, & Carlson, 2011) and political capital (Skerratt, 2013). Farmer, Prior, & Taylor (2012) discuss using the concept of capital to describe the aggregate of potential and actual community resources or assets. While Magis (2010) notes the importance of communities drawing upon their social, cultural, human, political, natural, and built resources. Community well-being and sustainable tourism by Moscardo, Konovalov, Murphy, and McGehee (2013) also draws upon the community capital framework by Emery and Flora (2006). Campbell, Carlisle-Cummins, and Feenstra (2013) suggestion that the community capitals framework could be useful in comparative case studies is of particular importance to this research proposal.