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This volume is an invitation to reshape ways of carrying out research for social action so that we critically analyze and responsibly use power at all stages of the research. Research as Empowerment encourages "feminist links" for carrying out an agenda of empowerment, while ensuring "postmodern interruptions" to keep from fixing onto any one analysis or solution of complex social issues. The text provides in-depth examples and research instruments used in the authors' studies with shelters, young people, lesbians, aboriginal women and others committed to ending violence against women and children and creating democratic organizations. Each example reveals a process of affirming real people and distinct cultures while at the same time disrupting categories that are socially constructed as a way to uncover the working of power. Throughout this volume ways are suggested that members of community groups, government departments and universities can join together in research as empowerment.
Participatory research has emerged as an approach to producing knowledge that is sufficiently grounded in local needs and realities to support community-based natural resource management (CBNRM), and it is often touted as crucial to the sustainable management of forests and other natural resources. This book analyses the current state of the art of participatory research in CBNRM. Its chapters and case studies examine recent experiences in collaborative forest management, harvesting impacts on forest shrubs, watershed restoration in Native American communities, civic environmentalism in an urban neighborhood and other topics. Although the main geographic focus of the book is the United States, the issues raised are synthesized and discussed in the context of recent critiques of participatory research and CBNRM worldwide. The book's purpose is to provide insights and lessons for academics and practitioners involved in CBNRM in many contexts. The issues it covers will be relevant to participatory research and CBNRM practitioners and students the world over.
Many people want to help bring about changes in their neighborhoods, workplaces, and communities. Leaders and scholars of change efforts are likewise eager for insights into what makes some organizations and coalitions capable of building and exercising power. Why are some groups successful in making changes in policies and systems and in sustaining their momentum over time, while others struggle or never really get off the ground? With Community Power and Empowerment, Brian D. Christens brings the most comprehensive analysis of empowerment theory yet conducted to bear on these questions, taking aim at many of the longstanding weaknesses and ambiguities of empowerment theory, research, and practice. For example, one major hindrance is that most notions of empowerment have not been coherently connected with community power. In addition, research has emphasized psychological aspects of empowerment over organizational processes, and has neglected community empowerment processes to an even greater extent. By linking empowerment and community power, Christens constructs a holistic framework for assessing and comparing community-driven change efforts. This book offers new guidance for inquiries into outcomes and impacts of empowerment processes on health and well-being, providing a resource for researchers, organizational leaders, practitioners, and anyone interested in collective action for change.
Many people want to help bring about changes in their neighborhoods, workplaces, and communities. Leaders and scholars of change efforts are likewise eager for insights into what makes some organizations and coalitions capable of building and exercising power. Why are some groups successful in making changes in policies and systems and in sustaining their momentum over time, while others struggle or never really get off the ground? With Community Power and Empowerment, Brian D. Christens brings the most comprehensive analysis of empowerment theory yet conducted to bear on these questions, taking aim at many of the longstanding weaknesses and ambiguities of empowerment theory, research, and practice. For example, one major hindrance is that most notions of empowerment have not been coherently connected with community power. In addition, research has emphasized psychological aspects of empowerment over organizational processes, and has neglected community empowerment processes to an even greater extent. By linking empowerment and community power, Christens constructs a holistic framework for assessing and comparing community-driven change efforts. This book offers new guidance for inquiries into outcomes and impacts of empowerment processes on health and well-being, providing a resource for researchers, organizational leaders, practitioners, and anyone interested in collective action for change.
There is increasing pressure on university scholars to reach beyond the “ivory tower” and engage in collaborative research with communities. But what does this actually mean? What is community-based participatory research (CBPR) and what does engagement look like? This book presents stories about CBPR from past and current Manitoba Research Alliance projects in socially and economically marginalized communities. Bringing together experienced researchers with new scholars and community practitioners, the stories describe the impetus for the research projects, how they came to be implemented, and how CBPR is still being used to effect change within the community. The projects, ranging from engagement in public policy advocacy to learning from Elders in First Nations communities, were selected to demonstrate the breadth of experiences of those involved and the many different methods used. By providing space for researchers and their collaborators to share the stories behind their research, this book offers valuable lessons and rich insights into the power and practice of CBPR.
This comprehensive handbook, the first in its field, brings together 106 different contributors. The 38 interrelated but at the same time independent chapters discuss key areas including conceptual frameworks; empirically grounded constructs; intervention strategies and tactics; social systems; designs, assessment, and analysis; cross-cutting professional issues; and contemporary intersections with related fields such as violence prevention and HIV/AIDS.
This is a book that will address the ways in which the theory andd of empowerment can be established and sustained in a variety of community settings and for a variety of target groups, and that may operate at different levels, from individual to societal.In this book, the authors aim to explore and illustrate how inclusive communities can be created and sustained through the development and implementation of empowerment strategies at various levels: Individual, peer, community and societal. The authors utilize the framework of the Dynamic Synergy Model, outlined in Chapter Two, as the context in which we can understand and then actualize the ideals of inclusive communities.In the first two chapters of this volume, the authors outline the concept of inclusive communities, beginning with the initial notion of inclusion, and how that concept has been applied in a variety of settings. They then discuss the topic of empowerment, its theoretical foundations and evolution, including a critique of the concept and the inherent power dynamics of community-based work. In Chapter Two, the authors outline the various levels of empowerment, introduce the Dynamic Synergy Model and delineate a variety of components for establishing and sustaining empowering activities at a variety of levels, in various settings, with evidence or goals for any of the elements outlined for establishing and sustaining empowerment goals with a variety of methods. The authors especially encourage contributions that can illustrate the implementation and/or evaluation of work that exemplifies the Dynamic Synergy Model.
Participatory research has emerged as an approach to producing knowledge that is sufficiently grounded in local needs and realities to support community-based natural resource management (CBNRM), and it is often touted as crucial to the sustainable management of forests and other natural resources. This book analyses the current state of the art of participatory research in CBNRM. Its chapters and case studies examine recent experiences in collaborative forest management, harvesting impacts on forest shrubs, watershed restoration in Native American communities, civic environmentalism in an urban neighborhood and other topics. Although the main geographic focus of the book is the United States, the issues raised are synthesized and discussed in the context of recent critiques of participatory research and CBNRM worldwide. The book's purpose is to provide insights and lessons for academics and practitioners involved in CBNRM in many contexts. The issues it covers will be relevant to participatory research and CBNRM practitioners and students the world over.
Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is a research approach that benefits from the expertise of community members being involved in the research along all stages of a project (Israel et al., 2003). CBPR is often utilized with marginalized populations in order to amplify a community's voice on important issues in their lives (Bastida, Tseng, McKeever, & Jack, 2010; Minkler & Wallerstein, 2008). In the past, persons with disability have been excluded from research in order to protect them from exploitation. This practice of exclusion undermines opportunities for persons with disabilities to be independent and make decisions that are important for themselves and their communities. Exclusion also limits the generation of new knowledge that can benefit them (McDonald & Keys, 2008). Through involvement on a CBPR project, persons with disabilities are given the opportunity to become empowered within the context of the project (Atkinson, 2004; Oden, Hernandez, & Hidalgo, 2010). This study examined empowerment definitions, evolution of empowerment definitions, and facilitators and barriers to community partners with and without disabilities becoming empowered through their work on a CBPR project. Overall, community partners' definitions of empowerment related to individual and setting-level characteristics. Individual-level empowerment was defined as self-efficacy, self-esteem, control over decision-making, and disability rights advocacy. Facilitators to empowerment within the CBPR process were promoting inclusion, promoting an accessible partnership, sharing of power within and between groups, and actively sharing and gaining knowledge within and between groups. Inaccessible communication, inaccessible language, and lack of project ownership were identified as possible barriers to empowerment. In most cases, empowerment definitions remained stable across one's work on this project, but there were instances of positive change in the lives of some community partners who expressed being empowered through the partnership. CBPR provides an opportunity for persons with developmental disabilities to be included in the research processes as well as possibly gain important qualities throughout, such as empowerment. This study situated the individual's empowerment beliefs and behaviors within the CBPR setting, identifying both facilitators and barriers, and provides support that a CBPR process can be empowering for community partners. Future research in collaboration with community partners should continue to focus on empowerment in all stages of the research project, local collaborations, and continued diversity of community engagement in research. Engaging in a formal reflection process and documenting the process for other researchers to learn from diverse barriers and facilitators to empowerment is encouraged.