Research Methods for Community Change: A Project-based Approach

Everyone is a member of a community, and every community is continually changing. To successfully manage that change, community members need information. Research Methods for Community Change is an in-depth review of all of the research methods that communities use to solve problems, develop their resources and protect their identities. With an engaging, friendly style and numerous real world examples, author Randy Stoecker shows readers how to use a project-based research model in the community.The four features of the model are: diagnosing a community condition, prescribing an intervention for the condition, implementing the prescription and evaluating its impact. At every stage of this model there are research tasks, from needs and assets assessments at the diagnosis stage to process and outcome studies at the evaluation stage. Readers will 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.