Grassroots Groups Research Articles

How Cost-Effective Is Capacity Building in Grassroots Organizations?

ABSTRACT Although capacity building has re-emerged as an important strategy in strengthening the infrastructure of social agencies and nonprofits, evaluations of these efforts are rare. The scope of capacity building is broad and includes education and training, technical assistance, coaching, peer networking and operational support. However, it is not known how well grassroots groups respond to these strategies and if they are cost-effective. This study examines the return on investment for capacity building. Using a sample of 125 grassroots organizations that participated in capacity building events over a five-year period, the multiple regression analysis results indicate that investments in these small nonprofits do make a difference. Participating organizations were more likely to engage in planning, use evaluation strategies, have grant writing knowledge and awareness of opportunities. Cost estimates reveal the level of investment needed for each outcome. The limitations of the study are acknowledged and suggestions for capacity building and further research are proposed.

Grassroots groups as stakeholders in spatial data infrastructures: challenges and opportunities for local data development and sharing

This paper investigates the unique challenges of an expanding group of stakeholders making demands upon shared geospatial data resources: non governmental organisations participating in local governance. In spite of efforts to improve local data integration in spatial data infrastructures and development of strategies from public participation GIS to expand access to geospatial data and technologies, grassroots data users still experience difficulties with the accessibility, quality, and usefulness of local government data resources. Drawing from extended ethnographic research conducted in Chicago, Illinois, I illustrate these problems and how they are shaped by grassroots groups' resource constraints, knowledge systems, and socio‐political positions; and assess the feasibility and impacts of proposed alternatives for better meeting grassroots spatial data needs. I contend that the needs and challenges of these stakeholders are unique from those of other users, but are nonetheless rooted in central dilemmas of spatial data handling, and so might be addressed through stronger engagement with GIScience research in this arena.

Sozialräumliche Konflikte in der unternehmerischen Stadt

Entrepreneurial urban politics not only aim at up-grading a locality for interurban competition. Under the label of New Public Management, they also remodel the city administration according to economic criteria of efficency. As a result, the political arena for urban social movements is undergoing severe changes. In the case of Berlin, New Public Management reforms seem to disadvantage grassroots groups that protest the privatization of public space, and lead to a political gap between social movements and left political parlamentarians.

Olympic Challenges for Chinese Grassroots Groups

Anthropology NewsVolume 48, Issue 9 p. 25-25 Olympic Challenges for Chinese Grassroots Groups Sara (Meg) Davis, Sara (Meg) DavisSearch for more papers by this author Sara (Meg) Davis, Sara (Meg) DavisSearch for more papers by this author First published: 29 December 2008 https://doi.org/10.1525/an.2007.48.9.25AboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume48, Issue9December 2007Pages 25-25 RelatedInformation

Communicating Research to Policymakers

This piece offers suggestions based on some things we expected to learn and from some things we did not expect to learn about communicating research to congressional policymakers. Some of these are insider discoveries from working as a professional staff member for a joint committee of the US Senate and the US House of Representatives. Other things we learned came largely as surprises from attempts to provide basic information and issue awareness about socioeconomic conditions in the Southern Black Belt directly to the Congress as well as indirectly through public interest and grassroots groups. One of the surprising discoveries, working professionally both on the inside of Congress and on the outside as social scientists, is how well social interaction actually works. And there were other surprises as well.

Assessing Variation in Civil Society Organizations

Theories of civil society set high expectations for grassroots associations, claiming that they school citizens in democracy and constrain powerful institutions. But when do real-life organizations actually live up to this billing? Homeowner organizations in the United States and elsewhere have sparked debate among political scientists, criticized by some as nonparticipatory and harmful to the overall polity and defended by others as benign manifestations of local self-governance. With this as a backdrop, China's emerging homeowner groups are used as a testing ground for exploring variation in three criteria of performance: self-organization, participation, and the exercising of power. Comparisons are drawn cross-nationally, among 23 cases in four Chinese cities and over time within neighborhoods. The article puts forward several factors affecting the properties of grassroots groups, highlighting the role of conflict, the political—legal environment, and collective action problems in shaping the way they engage their members and take political action.

The Limits of Protest and Prospects for Political Reform in Malaysia

The 1997 Asian currency “crisis” affected Malaysians in profound ways and complicated dominant nation and modernity narratives centered on economic growth and development and the stability of ethnic relations. In the ensuing months, Malaysia's political landscape—dominated by one party and its leadership — was also reconfigured. The ouster of Malaysia's deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, heir apparent to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad set the stage for the Reformasi movement, which was arguably the country's first organized large-scale protest movement to embrace a range of social actors, including nongovernmental organizations, grassroots groups, and political parties. By 2001 Reformasi was in decline and meaningful political and social reform had failed to materialize. What happened to this once vibrant movement? How can we account for its decline? This article analyzes the challenges encountered by Reformasi in confronting these dominant narratives and in reframing political discourse. The article situates Reformasi's decline in the context of its struggles with the dominant Barisan Nasional-led state as well as the complex relationship between different elements of the movement. It also explores how democratic deepening, the movement's inability to provide an alternative discourse that takes into account ethnicized divisions in Malaysia, and the tensions between the party political and movement aspects of protest politics have contributed to Reformasi's demise.

How Foundations Shape Social Movements: The Construction of an Organizational Field and the Rise of Forest Certification

Social movement scholars have demonstrated that foundation patronage channels social movements away from radical activities toward moderate goals, but accounts of how this process occurs are underdeveloped. Existing research typically focuses on foundations' differential selection of grant recipients (i.e., “cherry-picking” nonthreatening groups) and transformation of particular recipient organizations over time (i.e., professionalizing grassroots groups). Scholars have overlooked ways in which foundations shape social movements by building or restructuring entire organizational fields. Foundation-led “field-building” activities may embed social movement organizations (SMOs) in new contexts and enroll them in new projects, thus channeling protest in subtle ways. This argument is illustrated with the case of forest certification—a form of governance created in the 1990s as a moderate, market-based alternative to disruptive environmental boycotts. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data, I show how foundations coordinated their grant-making to build a field of forest certification, enrolled social movement organizations in this project, and used the leverage of protest to further their fieldbuilding agenda.

Ethical Issues in Clinical Neuroscience Research: A Patient’s Perspective

A patient-centered paradigm for clinical research and medical care is presented as a solution to the problem of declining innovation and increasing costs and development time in the pipeline for new therapies. Fundamental differences in values and motivations among scientists, clinicians, industry sponsor, and patients in neurotherapeutics provide a framework for analysis of ethical conflicts and the loss of public confidence in medical research. Parkinson advocates' views on clinical trial participation, perceived risks and benefits, placebo controls, and sham surgery are presented. These views reflect the sense of urgency and the unique perspective that comes from living with this progressive, debilitating condition full time. A patient-centered paradigm that includes authentic voices of patients as collaborators at every stage of development will help to resolve conflicts, build trust, recruit trial participants, and accelerate new therapies. Key elements are adaptive clinical trial methods and the development of information technology for the assessment of outcomes and surveillance of safety over the life cycle of a medical product. Supported by the Parkinson's Disease Foundation, the Parkinson Pipeline Project is a grassroots group of Parkinson's patients whose goal is to represent an authentic voice for patients in the treatment development process. This group promotes education and communication between members of the Parkinson's community and active stakeholders in medical research, industry, and regulatory agencies. Its members are an example of a new breed of knowledgeable consumers, armed with first-hand access to research findings and reinforced by on-line connections to like-minded peers throughout the world.

A justiça, o direito e os bancos de dados epidemiológicos

An understanding of the characteristics of the law in the XXI century, facing a crisis of legitimacy characterized by risk and thus fear as the main lines defining the relationship between the society and science blur, supports the quest for a fair balance between individual protection and public development. This exercise was conducted with epidemiological data bases as its purpose. The interests of society that require data bases to be made available with full information on all aspects of people's lives were examined, in parallel to individual interests that demand the utmost respect for the private life of each member of society. The conclusion is that, in a risk society, the law requires the construction of mechanisms that allow public decision and control by all citizens of level of risk they are willing to accept. For the matter under examination, committees of citizens and experts, as well as grassroots groups, should decide on the construction, inputs and use of data bases. It would also be important to provide all practitioners within the legal system with information related to such subjects as health law.

Japanese women in grassroots politics: building a gender-equal society from the bottom up

The 1979 UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women highlights the importance of equal participation of women in public life. Since the early 1960s, women in Japan have voted in elections at significantly higher rates than men. However, Japanese women's equal participation in policy formulation and decision making lags far behind major democracies. Gender equality is stated under the Japanese Constitution, but social practices are far from equal. There are no legal constraints on Japanese women's right to candidacy for public office, but they are far underrepresented in local and national elected assemblies. In 1999 an important landmark in the substantial progress towards gender equality took place when the Japanese government, for the first time, legally denounced the stereotyped division of roles on the basis of gender and described men and women as equal partners. An unprecedented amount of legislation, together with policy changes and organizational reform at the national level were introduced from this state-led initiation. In the same year, women's grassroots groups were rapidly moving beyond the reach of policy, organizational, and legal changes; they successfully conducted a major nationwide campaign for ‘More Women to Assemblies¡’ and increased the number of elected women representatives at the local level at an unprecedented rate. The purpose of this article is to assess the potential of increased women's political voices in Japan, which can be seen as an alternative way of solving the problems of political disengagement in the male-dominated representative democracy. To this end, the article examines the course of watershed events in 1999 towards a gender-equal society in Japan, with special emphasis on the importance of grassroots missions in eliminating barriers to Japanese women's political participation.

Anti-Orange Discourses in Ukraine's Internet: Before the Orange Split

A feature of modern political life is the use of the Internet, a factor that emerged in Ukraine's ‘Orange Revolution’. Traditional studies of structurally organized political actors – institutionalized opposition – underestimate the important role of grass-roots components of political debate, in which the Internet has become a medium in which individuals have gained a public voice; its contents can be analysed as a significant supplement to official public sources of information, giving a wider perspective from the grass-roots domain. This is especially important in view of the gap between Ukrainian institutionalized opposition (which demonstrates a ‘situated’ solidarity) and grass-roots groups (which exhibit a readiness for public dialogue). This article is based on the paper presented at the First Annual Danyliw Seminar in Contemporary Ukrainian Studies at the University of Ottawa, 29 Sept.–1 Oct. 2005. The author is grateful to Cathy Wanner, Sarah Phillips and Taras Kuzio for their helpful comments on an earlier draft.

Supporting and Sustaining Grassroots Youth Organizations: The Case of New Detroit

Grassroots organizations have a central place in service provision within many urban communities, particularly as they work with young people. Enhancing the potential of youth serving organizations is vital as many of these small groups lack infrastructure and resources. One organization has gone beyond grant making to organizations to include providing technical assistance, then moving to a model of capacity building to improve their ability to fulfill their mission. This paper describes the efforts of New Detroit to improve the infrastructure of youth serving grassroots organizations through a multi-faceted model and the outcomes evidenced from the first cohort. In addition we explore the contradictions inherent in working with small groups. How do you improve effectiveness without destroying the “homegrown” character these groups possess? The model presented here shows the value of empowering small grassroots groups to build capacity.

The small-mart revolution: how local businesses are beating the global competition

Introduction - What are the limits to shopping at Wal-Mart? Part I: Community Economics - Are local goods and services competitive with their global counterparts, and what do current trends in the world economy portend (1) Wreckenomics (2) The LOIS Alternative (3) Microtrends Part II: Personal Opportunities for Localization - How far can members of a U.S. household go in reasonably localizing its expenditures? (4) Goods (5) Services (6) Energy (7) Finance Part III: Strategies for Localization - What are the various ways communities, grassroots groups, national coalitions, and international movements are spreading the virtues of localization? (8) Local First (9) Local Economy Building (10) Protecting the Local, Globally

COMMENTARY: IN NEW ORLEANS, WORKERS ARE STILL BATTERED BY THE FLOOD

In New Orleans, as corporate profiteers scramble to benefit from the aftermath of the flood, the history of Black‐Brown relations has been compressed into a volatile six months. As contractors welcome Latino immigrants, displaced Black New Orleanians find they neither have jobs nor homes to return to. Unions and grassroots groups, using different methods, are trying to build unity as they fight for a voice for workers in the city's rebuilding.

Public Participation Geographic Information Systems: A Literature Review and Framework

Public participation geographic information systems (PPGIS) pertains to the use of geographic information systems (GIS) to broaden public involvement in policymaking as well as to the value of GIS to promote the goals of nongovernmental organizations, grassroots groups, and community-based organizations. The article first traces the social history of PPGIS. It then argues that PPGIS has been socially constructed by a broad set of actors in research across disciplines and in practice across sectors. This produced and reproduced concept is then explicated through four major themes found across the breadth of the PPGIS literature: place and people, technology and data, process, and outcome and evaluation. The themes constitute a framework for evaluating current PPGIS activities and a roadmap for future PPGIS research and practice.

Urban place: reconnecting with the natural world

Amidst city concrete and suburban sprawl, Americans are discovering new ways to reconnect with the natural world. From community gardens in New York's Lower East Side to homeless shelters in California, the search for a more sustainable future has led grassroots groups to a profound reconnection to place and to the natural world.Studies of the health consequences of renewing a connection with nature support the urgency of providing green surroundings as cities expand and the majority of the earth's population lives in urban areas. Medical research results, from groups as diverse as healthy volunteers, surgery patients, and heart attack survivors, suggest that contact with nature may improve health and well-being. Engagement with nearby natural places also provides restoration from mental fatigue and support for more resilient and cooperative behavior. Aspects of stronger community life are fostered by access to nature, suggesting that there are significant social as well as physical and psychological benefits from connection with the natural world.This volume brings together research from anthropology, sociology, public health, psychology, and landscape architecture to highlight how awareness of locale and a meaningful renewal of attachment with the earth are connected to delight in learning about nature as well as to civic action and new forms of community. Community garden coalitions, organic market advocates, and greenspace preservationists resist the power of global forces, enacting visions of a different future. Their creative efforts tell a story of a constructive and dynamic middle ground between private plots and public action, between human health and ecosystem health, between individual attachment and urban sustainability.

Organizational Responses to the Fatherhood Crisis

SUMMARY The emergence of fathers' rights groups, predominantly composed of men who have been personally affected by child support and custody laws, have been understudied up until this point. This article, based on 158 in-depth interviews, identifies individual motivations of members who join these groups, as well as their impressions on overcoming obstacles to further growth. Contrary to popular perception, the desire to change public policy is only one of the many reasons these men choose to join; equally, if not more important, are their needs for legal and emotional assistance. While acknowledging barriers to attracting new members, most are optimistic that their network of grassroots groups will soon become a strong, national social movement working behalf of fatherhood issues. The article concludes with several recommendations for policymakers to consider these groups' claims.

FRUSTRATIONS WITH FIDELIS: PROMISING IDEA, PROBLEMATIC APPROACH

Despite increased funding over the last decade, global tuberculosis (TB) control efforts have fallen short of their intended case detection targets.1 The FIDELIS initiative2 could help to close the gap by funding locally developed, innovative solutions that go beyond the current paradigm of passive case finding.3 Unfortunately, although FIDELIS’s overall objective is worthy, the approach is inadequate. First, it is not clear how much room for local, “innovative” proposals actually exists in the FIDELIS framework. Though the initiative purports to engage in-country contractors, its Web-based call for applications and its minimum proposal request of US$150000 exclude grassroots groups with low Internet access and limited capacity to manage large funds. Thus, FIDELIS is most accessible to organizations with significant capacity (i.e., those with affiliates in developed countries), whose proposals may be influenced by outside notions of “innovation” that are not locally relevant. Second, proposals are evaluated by experts within the existing TB control structure (Stop TB Partnership, National Tuberculosis programs, etc.), whose involvement in existing standardized strategies may limit their endorsement of new approaches. A shift toward innovative, context-specific strategies is key to improved TB control,4,5 but the FIDELIS framework is not conducive to realizing this goal. Third, the 2 key principles of FIDELIS’s proposal evaluation process contradict each other. To “focus on people with limited access to health services,”2 it may be necessary to violate the stringent cost-per-treatment-success target of US$80. Isolated populations are often underserved precisely because of the higher fixed costs inherent in reaching them (i.e., greater transportation expenditures). By imposing a cost-per-cure ceiling, FIDELIS favors urban and periurban locales. Focusing primarily on cost-effectiveness can be shortsighted and will ultimately hinder progress toward global TB control.6 Finally, the proposed funding cycle is problematic. The quick disbursement of funds and short project cycle may seem desirable in principle, but the 1-year funding cycle leaves little time to build project capacity before activities are expected to begin. Projects delayed by long waits for government approval could receive negative evaluations. The 8- to 10-month delay between the funding cycle’s end and the availability of TB treatment outcomes2 may leave projects in limbo. Increasing the contract length to 2 years, even without increased funding, might be beneficial for all parties. FIDELIS is a promising concept, but one that requires an improved approach to achieve the desired results.

It's not Just Abortion, Stupid: Progressives and Abortion

Progressive men and women have found it extremely difficult to address issues of reproductive and sexual behavior-abortion, above all. Reproductive politics, in left circles, is not just about fighting the antiabortion movement or right-wing sexual conservatives for the hearts and minds of "Middle America," though there is plenty of that. Mirroring in some ways other gender struggles after the emergence of second wave feminism, there is a long history of reproductive rights activists striving to make such issues legitimate on the left. (Indeed, 0such struggles go back to the early twentieth century, when Emma Goldman and Margaret Sanger fought a mostly losing battle to persuade their left-wing contemporaries to take seriously the campaign for legalizing birth control). And within the contemporary reproductive freedom movement itself—composed as it is of large mass membership organizations such as the National Organization for Women (NOW), Planned Parenthood, the Feminist Majority, and numerous smaller grassroots groups, only some of which identify as "progressive"—there is hardly unanimity as to how best frame positions on abortion.