What do you think?
Rate this book
Research Methods for Community Change: A Project-Based Approach
Research Methods for Community A Project-Based Approach, Second Edition is an in-depth review of all of the research methods that communities can use to solve problems, develop their resources, protect their identities, and build power. With an engaging writing style and numerous real world examples, Randy Stoecker shows how to use a project-based research model in the community diagnose a community condition; prescribe an intervention for the condition; implement the prescription; and evaluate its impact. At every stage of this model there are research tasks, from needs and assets assessments to process and outcome studies. Readers also learn the importance of involving community members at every stage of the project and in every aspect of the research, making the research part of the community-building process.
304 pages, Paperback
First published February 14, 2005
9 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 10, 2015
This is one of those I’ve-been-reading-it-all-semester-and-needed-to-read-the-odds-and-ends-to-call-it-officially-finished books. I have a lot of those. It’s academia.
Stoecker’s book reads like an accessible handbook for community organizations to use in determining how to approach research in the process of achieving community change and project goals. It asserts that “research” is something that we are already doing, and there are best practices for doing it, but that ultimately it comes down to situational specifics. It deals a lot with power/privilege dynamics, especially between community activists and academic “researchers” and the privileges of being an outsider coming into an organization to “do research.”
Stoecker pulls apart this traditional perspective, instead claiming that “research” is simply a process of diagnose-prescribe-implement-evaluate (repeat) that organizations are already doing, in order to achieve their goals. Research, he says, should always be supporting the project, which is trying to “create some difference in real people’s lives.” It draws on their experiences and indigenous knowledge and is creative and unique in its appearance and tactics.
Very cut-and-dry language, but honestly, this book is amazingly accessible and exceedingly helpful in giving activists and community organizers some different language to use to approach academics and funders and politicians, in order to describe what they are already doing as “research” and perhaps gain legitimacy, in addition to also breaking down the definition of “research” into one that is more open and helpful. It is very social-justice in a real “how will this make a real difference to real people” way.
I’d recommend this book for anyone going into work in a “community organization” and working for “community change.” It’s a useful “manual” and both helpful and quotable. There’s lots of real examples of how these techniques have been done well, and how they have been bungled and screwed up. There are appendices on strategic planning, “research ethics and the institutional review board,” writing proposals, and data resources, and some great sections on things like: “But I don’t do research” or “But I don’t do community work.” Seriously, pick this book up. Supremely useful. Anyone doing community informatics should also read this, especially if you aren’t familiar with Eubanks and Stoecker and doing CI in a popular education way. Shake up your conceptualizations of the digital divide and get some real change going on!
TL;DR – Accessible yet often academic “handbook” on achieving community change through a “project-based approach” to doing “research.” A must-have for community organizers and activists, and academics who are doing research or “community partner” work. Seriously, get this book.
Stoecker’s book reads like an accessible handbook for community organizations to use in determining how to approach research in the process of achieving community change and project goals. It asserts that “research” is something that we are already doing, and there are best practices for doing it, but that ultimately it comes down to situational specifics. It deals a lot with power/privilege dynamics, especially between community activists and academic “researchers” and the privileges of being an outsider coming into an organization to “do research.”
Stoecker pulls apart this traditional perspective, instead claiming that “research” is simply a process of diagnose-prescribe-implement-evaluate (repeat) that organizations are already doing, in order to achieve their goals. Research, he says, should always be supporting the project, which is trying to “create some difference in real people’s lives.” It draws on their experiences and indigenous knowledge and is creative and unique in its appearance and tactics.
Very cut-and-dry language, but honestly, this book is amazingly accessible and exceedingly helpful in giving activists and community organizers some different language to use to approach academics and funders and politicians, in order to describe what they are already doing as “research” and perhaps gain legitimacy, in addition to also breaking down the definition of “research” into one that is more open and helpful. It is very social-justice in a real “how will this make a real difference to real people” way.
I’d recommend this book for anyone going into work in a “community organization” and working for “community change.” It’s a useful “manual” and both helpful and quotable. There’s lots of real examples of how these techniques have been done well, and how they have been bungled and screwed up. There are appendices on strategic planning, “research ethics and the institutional review board,” writing proposals, and data resources, and some great sections on things like: “But I don’t do research” or “But I don’t do community work.” Seriously, pick this book up. Supremely useful. Anyone doing community informatics should also read this, especially if you aren’t familiar with Eubanks and Stoecker and doing CI in a popular education way. Shake up your conceptualizations of the digital divide and get some real change going on!
TL;DR – Accessible yet often academic “handbook” on achieving community change through a “project-based approach” to doing “research.” A must-have for community organizers and activists, and academics who are doing research or “community partner” work. Seriously, get this book.
March 4, 2019
Good book for understanding the purpose and importance of research in project management. His writing style is significantly better and more pleasant than other authors in this field. Good as a resource book and textbook.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews