Community Development Research Research Articles

A Turn to Assets in Community-Based Computing Research: Tradeoffs, Deficits, and Neoliberalism in Technological Development

CSCW and HCI scholars are increasingly adopting asset-based approaches to community-based social computing research. Emerging from asset-based community development (ABCD), an approach to community and economic development research and practice that emerged in the 1990s, advocates for asset-based approaches argue that a "needs-based approach" to development is overly focused on community deficits, and in doing so portrays communities in a largely negative light. Using ABCD methods, social computing scholars work to aid communities in identifying, classifying, and deploying their unrealized assets through sociotechnical systems. But researchers deploying asset-based approaches in CSCW and HCI more broadly have yet to grapple with the origins of ABCD in neoliberal economic shifts of the 1980s and 1990s that perpetuated distrust in the state and sought to transfer development power to private, local actors. Drawing on a case study of controversy around the construction of a cell tower in a very remote and rural community in the Midwestern United States to examine the inherent tradoffs present in asset- and deficit-based research.

A Reworking on the Cow Dung Waste Concern into Design

Globally, environmental pollution stemming from livestock waste remains a widespread and unresolved concern. The contamination resulting from such waste can have adverse effects on both air and water quality, impacting not only livestock owners but also neighboring non-farming communities. This paper focuses specifically on the case study of cow dung waste accumulation in the local ditches of a Cattle Farmers' village in West Java called Bukatanah Village to discuss socio-environmental concerns. Our ongoing research closely aligns with exploring the potential of residents in Bukatanah Village to address the environmental issues prevalent in their living areas. Moreover, this paper is dedicated to illustrating the significance of co-designing the concept in collaboration with the local community rather than imposing a top-down approach in the village. The process is shaped by a series of design ethnography observations, participatory design workshops, material exploration, and project evaluation stages. This paper illustrates a rethinking of solving environmental problems by engaging the locals in "design-making" activities. As a method, the concept of participatory design conducted by the PP-PBL ITB team becomes crucial to be implemented for gaining mutual ideas together with the locals. The research-initiated collaborative system empowers Bukatanah Village residents, fostering creativity and creating home-based business opportunities. This is a continued focus in multidisciplinary community development research, encompassing participatory design and ethnography methods in the process.

Integrating asset-based community development and community-based research for social change: A beginning


 
 
 This themed volume is grounded in a set of diverse case studies that bring community and university partners together using two aligned methodologies: community-based research (CBR), which evolved from higher education, and asset-based community development (ABCD), which evolved from community practice. The volume places these methodologies in dialogue with each other, to examine and begin to answer the question that guided the volume’s call for articles: can CBR and ABCD be compatible agents in equitable and sustainable change? From the case studies emerge five themes that we explore in this guest editorial: (1) the benefits of community-university partnerships; (2) the risks of community-university partnerships; (3) notions of community expertise and ‘community partner’; (4) the centrality of relationship-based methodologies in partner-building; and (5) explorations of power, equity and justice. The editorial opens and closes with discussion on the important systemic question of power imbalances between universities and communities, which has to be addressed for these methodologies to be effective, whether used on their own or in combination within community-university partnerships. It concludes with a discussion of the ‘deep, wide and connected’ community engagement that the articles as a whole suggest is necessary to have equitable and sustainable impact.
 
 

Creating space for dialogue: Exploring what matters for children on St Helena Island through The World Café

The World Café (TWC) method is now established as a participatory tool used in community development and qualitative research. However, there is a limited critique of TWC as a social work research method, especially with children. This paper discusses TWC as a method for understanding what matters for children on the British Overseas Territory of St Helena Island. As a social worker, the importance of supporting children’s engagement and voice is well known in participation, necessitating careful ethical consideration. Within this project facilitating authentic conversations with children on a remote island required examining assumptions alongside engaging with colonial legacies to bring forward respectful participation. TWC shares several fractures of other participatory approaches evolving from critical pedagogy, which appeared aligned with social work values and ethics. Facilitated shared learning and allowed children to discuss issues that mattered to them, although handing over dialogue to children required commitment to trust and sharing control with young people. Café events revealed the complex positioning of social roles situating lived experiences, whereby children developed their learning of what mattered to them through interactions and a growing understanding of their global position. The method edged dialogue towards transformative conversations, acknowledging the oppression of marginalised peoples, requires reflection and action from children and young people themselves to elevate their positions from within their own knowledge. This supports the potential for further research to understand if creative methods can create more spaces for dialogue, allowing the emergence of more authentic children’s engagement in research which is more socially just.

Tourism, social networks, and community development: a case study of a coastal Vietnamese village

Abstract This article examines how tourism becomes integrated into rural communities and how an isolated Vietnamese community explores and creates employment opportunities through social networks. The empirical investigation is based on a case study of local involvement in tourism employment in Viet Hai, a remote coastal commune. The results of forty in-depth, semi-structured interviews reveal that the involvement of locals in tourism employment is closely associated with the density of individual social networks. Particularly, villagers with dense networks with external tourism operators and stronger kinship relations are more likely to have better access and resources to participate in tourism employment. Our empirical findings also demonstrate that the popularity of social media in remote areas could bring more opportunities to establish and strengthen external relationships and generate more resources for tourism development. Interviews with local people also unveil that tourism can intensify the income gaps among villagers, causing increasing intra-village disparities in living standards. Based on these results, local governments should be more active in connecting local villagers and tour operators. Future research and policy work in tourism and community development would benefit from a more explicit focus on the relationships between social networks and new forms of inequality, kinship ties, agritourism, and more sustainable trajectories of local development.

Focus Group Discussion: A Research Method in Community Development

This paper is based on recent consensus among development practitioners that for development to be meaningful, it must adopt the bottom-up and community-driven approach. Researchers in community development most often use Focus Group Discussion (FGD) in researches meant to achieve bottom-up and community-driven development through research. They often use this method exclusively or as a complementary tool to collect in-depth information directly from the subjects of a research. For a better understanding, simplified and correct use of the method, this paper presents knowledge on operationalization of focus group discussion as research method in community development. The authors concluded that community development experts, practitioners and researchers need the knowledge as presented in this paper to effectively use focus group discussion to promote bottom-up and community-driven development through research.

Communication network analysis

This study firstly aimed to Illustrate the innovative value of network analysis for the development communication researcher. A case study with the emphasis on an intact system of farmers in the Border-Kelarsalis presented. The study was conducted in Komkhulu with. 46 local farmers taking part in the research. Network analyses were done on a "Who to whom?" matrix basis in order to determine and to illustrate the dynamic Interrelatedness amongst Intact system members and its potential research value for communication and development researchers. Network analysis research In this study concentrated on three levels, namely, the system, clique and Individal levels of analysis. A conceptual picture of dynamic network analysis aspects was revealed. The conceptual quality of network analysis is further enriched by the use and application of the open-systems approach orientation and the communication convergence orientation. The emphasis is not on the effects of communication, but rather on what is taking place among system members. Lastly, social scientists and development communication researchers in particular are encouraged to use network analysis in con junction with or in support of other methodological orientations in community development research. granted lay the Panther (dated 2010

Critical and transformative approaches in leadership evaluation and research.

In this article, the author summarizes what critical and transformational theory is, along with its goals, and describes why such an approach is particularly relevant within the field of student leadership development. Application of a critical and transformational approach to conducting research and program evaluation efforts in leadership and community development using practical examples within postsecondary education is also shared.

Reflecting on community development research: how peer researchers influence and shape community action projects

Abstract This paper explores how the selection of peer researchers influences and shapes peer research projects. It draws on two empirical studies formed from two community action projects in England. Peer research is a method for involving young people as coresearchers within their community or in specific settings such as educational environments and the two projects recruited school children of different ages and ethnic backgrounds; in both cases they were representative of the potential participant population. One project (Community House) was based in a junior school setting and concentrated on evaluating a community centre project. The second project (Knife Angel: Hear My Voice) was a youth work setting and brought together a group of young people to explore an intervention aimed at impacting crime and violence in the local community. This paper discusses how the demographic characteristics of the peer researchers shaped, influenced and impacted the success of both community action projects. We discuss how children and young people bring their unique skills to preparing the questionnaire and dissemination. Using researcher reflexivity, we consider the methodological implications of the findings and contribute to theory building about community action and the impact of participatory research.

Engaging communities to prepare for natural hazards: a conceptual model

Natural hazard preparation by communities reduces disaster-induced physical health problems and adverse experiences, lowers potential for post-traumatic stress disorders, and aids faster recovery. However, approaches to community engagement for preparedness vary widely leaving those responsible confused and often overwhelmed. This study builds on natural hazards behavior, community development, participatory, and codesign research to understand current community engagement approaches in an Australian context. Key principles for engaging communities were operationalized from document analysis and interviews with 30 community engagement practitioners from 25 Australian emergency management agencies. A thematic analysis of the agency documents and interviews led to a visualization of the pathway to community-led preparedness with the iterative community-centered engagement model for preparedness. The model reflects both current practice and aspirations. It contributes theoretically to a collaborative community-led engagement approach for risk personalization and protective action by highlighting the need to develop a deep understanding of the specific features of local communities. The model maps a pathway through different levels of community engagement toward the ultimate aim of a community-led approach to natural hazards preparation. It recognizes the changing circumstances and the situation of communities within their environment, and the barriers and enablers to support community-led preparedness. The model is significant in that it delivers a practical framework for engagement practitioners to build capacity in their communities and support their local communities to prepare for natural hazards and build relational capital for longer-term resilience.

Bolstering community well-being through wildlife conservation: Broadened approaches engaging wildlife well-being and indigenous wisdom

ABSTRACT This perspective article highlights the global well-being movement within and beyond community development, which can be informed to examine the interconnections between wildlife well-being and human well-being. COVID-19ʹs global impact has brought into sharp focus the magnitude of the social, economic, and environmental crises facing leaders, communities, nations, wildlife, and the planet. Post-COVID-19, community development research, policy, and practice require comprehensive approaches addressing social unrest, climate, and biodiversity in tandem. This article showcases how community development professionals can leverage wildlife conservation to bolster and mutually reinforce community well-being, drawing on the natural and cultural capital literature, which can inform empirical research, theory, and practice. This article guides community development professionals to link wildlife capital/well-being to human well-being, embrace Indigenous wisdom around conservation, and build upon momentum in scientific inquiry around well-being measures. This perspective article concludes showcasing how community well-being pursuits can integrate wildlife and local wisdom in community development.

Investing In Communities: Forging New Ground in Corporate Community Codevelopment through Relational and Psychological Pathways

Within management scholarship and practice, corporate community investments are heralded as an important form of corporate social responsibility. Yet, community development scholars have engaged in discourse and debate regarding corporate community investment, surmising that in some instances it does more harm than good. Where management research has not focused—and can substantially contribute to both theory and practice—is on how to implement corporate community investment for mutual gain. Integrating the fields of management and community development, I provide an evidence-based theory for understanding corporate community codevelopment, addressing relational and psychological pathways for behavioral change. This model emerged from a longitudinal qualitative ethnographic study of corporate-community investment programs, involving 1,176 hours of observations, 63 interviews, as well as narratives and reflections from participants representing 11 large corporations, at-risk remote Indigenous Australian communities, and a nonprofit organization. The 35 programs in focus involved initiatives such as family income management, educational trusts, literacy programs, and nutritional and substance abuse campaigns. The results in competency-building and community development have exceeded the expectations of all parties. Implications for theory, research, policy, and practice in management and community development are included.

Beyond the Classics: Identifying Gaps and Setting Trajectory in Understanding Political Dynamics in Philippine Local Politics

Epistemological frames and theoretical underpinnings are developed precisely to give coherence and cognitive rendering to a rather chaotic appearance of the world and reality to man’s consciousness. These frames offer associations of nuances and concepts that in turn provide cogent systems of understanding, which contribute to man’s unending search for meanings combining as it were his experience of the world and his ability to mentally grasp such experience hence, the Ancient Greek word episteme. In the social sciences, theoretical frameworks are formulated to provide grounding venues for construing the complexities and specificities of social phenomena toward a better understanding of the social world. Concomitantly, these frameworks are assessed and evaluated based on their capacity to utter notions and tell stories of the slice of reality they wish to depict. 
 It is in this respect that this paper offers a critical examination of the most prevalent theoretical frames and epistemic perspectives, herein referred to as classics, deployed in understanding Philippine political local dynamics. In light of Philippine contemporary economic, social, cultural, and political developments, the article identifies some gaps and bumps in these ‘classics’ to offer a research trajectory that scholars in the field can rightly consider. Through a synthesis of existing political paradigms applied in local politics, the paper highlighted nuances that are ignored, realities that are not yet explored, and concepts rendered with over-simplistic meanings, suggesting imperatives for modifications, deconstructions, and even reconstructions.
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Increasing immunity during the COVID-19 pandemic by strengthening the effects of clean and healthy life behavior (PHBS) and vegetable eating movement (Germasur) education on Omah Berkah Orphanage Children, Grabag, Magelang Regency

The coronavirus (COVID-19) is a high infectious disease that was discovered towards the end of 2019 in Wuhan, China. Indonesia has reported an increasing rate of the virus. However, the pandemic is possibly prevented by boosting immunity and implementing Clean and Healthy Life Behavior (PHBS), including consuming fruits/vegetable and washing of hands, respectively. As a consequence, PHBS and Germasur (Vegetable Eating Movement) have been adopted to enhance immunity in children. Meanwhile, fruit/vegetable intake and maintaining cleanliness appear relatively challenging for most children, particularly in the context of orphanage. Therefore, the purpose of this integrated community service (PPMT) is to determine the effects of PHBS and Germasur education in increasing the immunity of 24 children at the Omah Berkah Orphanage, Grabag, Magelang Regency, during the COVID-19 era. Community development, educational and participatory research methods were applied. The results showed an increase in PHBS and Germasur behavior in everyday life.

Participatory mural painting and identifying resources in Asset Based Community Development research: a case in rural Ecuador

Most development communication scholarship uses adeficits-based approach to social change. The asset-based community development (ABCD) emphasizes identifying acommunity’s strengths to promote social change. We offer an asset mapping that uses participatory mural painting as its discovery method. As part of an ongoing engagement in rural Ecuador, we worked with the children of Bellamaria, Loja to paint representations of assets in their community. Children identified both natural resources and relational resources as assets. Through an analysis of the mural, we demonstrate practical method for children for portraying assets in ABCD.

The State of Tourism and Community Development Research and Future Directions

Tourism is often considered as a vehicle for community development and poverty alleviation and it is recognized as an off-farm activity that is key in generating revenue and providing employment for poor rural and urban residents and promoting economic growth in those communities. Community-based tourism has been advanced as a bottom-up strategy that encourages more just and equitable benefits for local communities to meet their household needs. Despite tourism's potentials in community development, this is a contested topic and needs both theoretical and applied research. This article provides an overview of tourism and community development research and offers future directions. With articles from across the globe, this special issue brings to the fore achievements as well as challenges experienced in different settings as different stakeholders engage in tourism with a view to develop host communities. Eleven articles published in the special issue highlight theoretical, practical, and policy implications and therefore have the potential to advance knowledge in the field. This volume contributes to the tourism and community development discourse by providing diverse theoretical and empirical pieces of research work that will provide knowledge, inform practitioners, community development planners, and policy makers in their efforts to assist destination communities, in both the Global North and the Global South, to use tourism resources and attractions in a sustainable manner to improve their livelihoods.

CommUNIty-Led development: A partnership to realize Aboriginal Elders’ vision for change

ABSTRACT This article outlines the development of “Yuwaya Ngarra-li” (YN), a holistic, community-led partnership with a university that aims to realize Aboriginal Elders’ vision for wellbeing in their community. The Dharriwaa Elders Group (DEG), a community-controlled organization in Walgett, a remote town in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, invited the University of New South Wales (UNSW) to partner with them to progress their long-held vision for systemic change. This partnership aims to improve the environment, life pathways, and wellbeing of Aboriginal people living in Walgett through collaboration on evidence-based initiatives, research and building local community capabilities and control. YN builds on decades of strong advocacy, community development, and participatory research that has focused on addressing structural injustices and inequity through centering Indigenous knowledges, worldviews, and rights. This innovative partnership is contributing to the evidence base for community-led solutions, with implications for research, policy and practice.

Community development participation scale: A development and validation study

ABSTRACT This paper presents the development of a Community Development Participation Scale (CDPS) to be yieldingly administered and useful to community development researchers in measuring the level of participation of people in community development activities. This instrument was administered as a development and validation study to a sample of women from rural communities in Ghana (N= 210). After the reliability and validity analysis, the attitude/interest subscale was left with eight (8) items and a Cronbach alpha level of .73. The active participation subscale was left with nine (9) items and a Cronbach alpha level of .79. Principal component analysis (PCA) with a direct oblimin rotation indicated a two-dimensional scale with a KMO value of .82 and a Bartlett’s test of sphericity χ2 (136) = 846.68, p < .01. These results show that the CDPS is strong enough to recommend its use in community development settings.

Women, wellbeing and the city: A model of participatory health research exploring physical activity in Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities

Objective: The aim of this project was to document a partnership working process from a cross-sectoral and cross-cultural participatory health research study focused on promoting physical activity among women from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds. Design: A participatory health research paradigm was used to support this pilot feasibility study into partnership working for health promotion. Action research and community development principles underpinned the design, delivery and interpretation of findings from a community-based survey, data from four focus groups and bespoke interventions. Setting: Community groups from education, leisure, health and religious community sectors, and charity sectors, in the City of Liverpool, met in different venues representing those sectors. Method: Reflection on the process of community engagement in a research study guided by socio-ecological model, community development and action research principles. Results: Seven emerging collaborative processes based on effective partnership working, capacity-building practice and sustaining health and wellbeing evolved from a partnership between a Community Researchers Advisory Group and a Partners Advisory Group. BAME ‘community connectors’ were key to obtaining feedback from 213 women from 16 ethnic groups, which influenced the development of bespoke interventions and local sport and physical activity long-term policy, as one means of reducing social inequalities for women from BAME backgrounds. Conclusion: This feasibility study demonstrates the effectiveness and limitations of partnership working as a public health tool. The local Sport and Physical Activity Alliance and council department worked together to promote the sustainability of BAME-focused programmes as part of their governance and policy frameworks.

The Role of Scientific Research in Local Community Service from the Perspective of Faculty Members of some Palestinian Universities

The present study aimed at investigating the role of scientific research in the development of the local community from the point of view of the faculty members in the Palestinian Universities. To achieve this objective, a convenient sample of (244) faculty members from the universities of northern Palestine: Al-Quds Open University (Tulkarm), An-Najah National (Nablus), Technical Palestine - Khadouri (Tulkarem), and Arab American (Jenin). The results of the study showed that the participants&amp;#39; assessment of the importance of the role of scientific research in community development was medium in the overall instrument and two dimensions: applied research and scientific consultancy, but their assessment of awareness-raising was high. On the other hand, the results showed that there were statistically significant differences in the level of the role of practical research in the development of the community attributed to the gender variable in favor of males on the overall instrument and three dimensions, while there were no statistically significant differences in the level of participants&amp;#39; assessment attributed to the variable of specialization. The differences were in favor of the disciplines of educational sciences and applied sciences. There were also statistically significant differences in the level of their assessment attributed to the qualification variable on the overall instrument and the three dimensions in favor of PhD holders.Keywords: scientific research, community service, awareness-raising, applied research, scientific consultancy.