Building Community Social Science in Action

, by Philip Nyden; Anne Figert; Mark Shibley; Darryl Burrows

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ISBN: 9780803990937 | 0803990936
Cover: Paperback
Copyright: 1/31/1997

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This innovative text demonstrates how social science theory and research can be applied to successful collaborative work with community groups. The 27 instructive case studies, framed by two introductory chapters and a concluding chapter, draw out the principles and perspectives underlying the case materials. Each case also concludes with extensive editorial commentary.

Preface

xvii

(4)

Forewords

xxi

Introduction

(2)

Why Collaborate and Models of How To

(2)

CHAPTER ONE University-Community Collaborative Research: Adding Chairs at the Research Table Although, traditionally, there have been tensions between community-based organizations and university-based researchers, these two forces can join to create new capacities for finding solutions to pressing problems. Community and university can become true partners at all stages of research. While all research is "political" in some way, in the case of collaborative projects, rigorous research practices can be maintained and communities can be given increased capacity to shape and influence policy research.

(11)

CHAPTER TWO Effective Models of Collaboration As both community-based organizations and universities face declining resources, new models of community-university collaborative research are emerging. These models draw on capacities, skills, and experience inside and outside the university. Representing a variation on already developed research traditions, such as participatory action research, this new research methodology is being used in more and more communities. A detailed discussion of an eight-year-old collaborative project, the Policy Research Action Group (PRAG), is provided, along with lessons from collaborative research experiences.

(15)

Part I Racial, Ethnic, and Economic Diversity: Pipe Dream of the Politically Correct or Are There Working Models?

(36)

CASE STUDY 1 Creating and Sustaining Racially and Ethnically Diverse Communities In a six-year partnership, community organizers and university-based researchers work side-by-side in seeking ways to strengthen links across different racial, ethnic, and income groups in two of the most diverse communities in the United States. Reports from this project have focused on housing, business development, inter-religious cooperation, and the needs of youth. The work has been used successfully to shape local social services as well as to put pressure on political leaders--from the mayor of Chicago to the president of the United States.

(10)

Philip Nyden, Loyola University Chicago

Joanne Adams, Loyola University Chicago

Kim Zalent, Organization of the NorthEast

CASE STUDY 2 University-Community Collaboration in Low-Income Housing Projects and Neighborhood Revitalization in Louisville, Kentucky A Collaboration between a university, local government, business, and community organizations has revitalized a low-income neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky. The Russell Partnership has used the coordinating capacities as well as the database analysis skills of various departments in a university to design and implement a holistic approach to community revitalization.

(5)

John Gilderbloom

R. L. Mullins, Jr.

Russ N. Sims

Mark T. Wright

La tondra R. Jones

CASE STUDY 3 Collaborative, Policy-Related Research in the Area of Fair Housing and Community Development One of the premier regional fair housing advocate agencies in the United States, the Leadership Council participated in an innovative researcher-practitioner research project in 1986. With a $50,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, nine separate research action projects were developed examining mortgage lending practices, counseling services, mid-census estimates of racial patterns, trends in housing prices, and experiences of African American "pioneers" in previously all-white suburbs.

(5)

John Lukehart, Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities

CASE STUDY 4 The Fair Lending Coalition: Organizing Access to Capital in Milwaukee This coalition between a university and local community leaders demonstrates how data analysis by university researchers can combine with community group capacity influence government regulatory practices. The result is watchdogging of existing legislation that bans discrimination in lending practices on the part of local banks.

(6)

Gregory D. Squires, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Dan Willett, Fair Lending Coalition

CASE STUDY 5 Changing Neighborhoods and Research for Diversity in Cleveland Demonstrating that collaborations can start in an uncomplicated way, a graduate student and a community leader found common ground, establishing a productive research and action relationship. This provides a model that can be used by other students and community leaders in getting partnerships started.

(7)

Janet L. Smith, Cleveland State University

Bobbie Reichtell, Broadway Area Housing Coalition

Part II Whose Environment, Whose Problem? Collaborative Research Is Changing the Environmental Movement

(38)

CASE STUDY 6 Dismantling Environmental Racism in the Policy Arena: The Role of Collaborative Social Research In working with an African American community in suburban Houston, a university professor and his students gained experience on the front lines of a national movement confronting environmental racism--the practice of locating industrial plants that produce hazardous chemicals or toxic waste dumps in minority communities. The impact of research like this on national policy is documented.

(7)

Robert D. Bullard, Clark Atlanta University

CASE STUDY 7 Lead Analysis in an Urban Environment: Building a Cooperative, Community-Driven Research Program in Chemistry Beginning with a pilot study of the lead content in soil at a local park, a chemistry professor involves her undergraduate and and graduate students, as well as children from city middle schools, in doing lead testing. In addition to demonstrating how scientific research can be relevant to the lives of Latino and African American communities in Chicago, the information is being used by community organizations to pinpoint the source of lead poisoning among children in city neighborhoods.

(5)

Alanah Fitch, Loyola University Chicago

CASE STUDY 8 Janitors and Dry Cleaners: Constructing a Collaborative Model for Environmental Research When research issues are defined by the community, they typically call for interdisciplinary work. Looking at the involvement of janitors and dry cleaners in framing research on the chemical hazards to which they are exposed, a professor of urban studies sets up a collaborative research project drawing from different disciplines in the university as well as from community expertise. The research also calls for an alternative environmentalism linked to everyday community and work life. This complements the mainstream movements' concern with natural resources more distant from most city residents.

(6)

Robert Gottlieb, University of California at Los Angeles

CASE STUDY 9 Local Knowledge and Collaborative Environmental Action Research Reliance on "expert" scientific knowledge in understanding environmental problems and their solutions is challenged. Without the involvement of community members who have their own understanding of cultural and social dimensions of environmental problems, solutions designed by lawyers, scientists, and elected officials may miss key issues that need to be addressed.

(7)

Devon Pena, Colorado College

Joe Gallegos, Farmer and Activist

CASE STUDY 10 Creating New Partnerships for the Urban Environment An example of a Policy Research Action Group-sponsored study, the director of the Chicago Legal Clinic describes two projects. First is the development of a manual advising nonprofit organizations how to avoid the financial liabilities of receiving donated properties that contain toxic hazards. Second is a coordinated legal clinic, university, and community organization effort to get citizens more involved in the setting of environmental policy in one of the nation's most polluted industrial regions.

(6)

Keith Harley, Chicago Legal Clinic

CASE STUDY 11 Social Science and Environmental Activism: A Personal Account By presenting a short autobiography of how he has integrated his career as a sociologist with work with community residents facing health problems related to environmental hazards, a longtime scholar-activist illustrates connections between research and action. Starting with a study on the childhood leukemia cluster in Woburn, Massachusetts, the author discusses how to negotiate the terrain between academics and activism.

(5)

Phil Brown, Brown University

Part III New Models for Community-Based Research and Learning

103

(48)

CASE STUDY 12 SCIENCE 2001: A Community-Based Model for Promoting Scientific Literacy Alarmed by the falling science literacy rate among children, college professors, teachers, and community leaders created a communitywide program that now serves as a model for other urban communities. A collaboration between Loyola University and public schools in three Chicago community areas has created successful science education programs that earlier single-agency efforts were unable to sustain.

105

(7)

JoBeth D'Agostino, Loyola University Chicago

Bryan Wunar, Loyola University Chicago

Diane Schiller, Loyola University Chicago

Stephen Freedman, Loyola University Chicago

CASE STUDY 13 Research as Praxis: The Role of a University-Based Program in Facilitating Community Change Community organizations are typically trying to keep up with pressing, immediate problems and do not often have the luxury of standing back and looking at the broader picture. The community fellows program, providing one-year research fellowships, is aimed at giving community activists the opportunity to reflect on broader issues affecting their work. Much of the work has involved training youth to work with computer network applications.

112

(8)

Mel King, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Laxmi Ramasubramanian, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

CASE STUDY 14 Bringing the Community Into the University By bringing nontraditional adult students into a liberal arts and professional education program that emphasizes ongoing research and teaching work in community settings, the College of Public and Community Service has produced a truly collaborative research and learning environment. Explicitly recognizing the expertise that community leaders bring with them to the classroom, a learning environment has been produced where traditional teacher-student or researcher-subject relationships have been replaced by cooperative shared efforts between community and university.

120

(9)

Marie Kennedy

Michael Stone

Melvyn Colon University of Massachusetts, Boston

CASE STUDY 15 The Academy Hits the Streets: Teaching Community-Based Research A model for utilizing a graduate social science course to conduct research in cooperation with community organizations, this case study looks at benefits to both students and community. The two professors reflect on the lessons learned--from an understanding of the political aspects of research to the connection of theory to everyday social issues.

129

(6)

Barbara Ferman, Temple University

Anne B. Shlay, Temple University

CASE STUDY 16 The Chicago ACORN Leadership Development Project: A Model for Community-Based Learning ACORN's leadership development model is patterned after liberation theology's reflection/action dynamic. This is an example of a community organization taking the lead and inviting university "experts" into the community to participate as equals in a leadership training process.

135

(6)

Madeline Talbott, Chicago Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)

CASE STUDY 17 Cross-Cultural Parenting on Detroit's Eastside: Establishing Community-Based Parenting in a Multicultural Neighborhood Reflecting on issues central to its future, a Detroit low-income community identified the need for parenting education as one way of confronting the epidemic of violence and social disarray in its neighborhood. Recognizing that parenting is one thing that most of us are involved in, but most of us get little formal training in, the university and community worked to develop a parenting curriculum sensitive to different cultural traditions.

141

(10)

Barbara George Gallagher, Wayne State University

Neva Nahan, Wayne State University

Part IV Health Issues Are Social Issues

151

(48)

CASE STUDY 18 Reframing Knowledge About the AIDS Epidemic: Academic and Community-Based Interventions A sociologist and a medically trained director of a large community-based provider of AIDS/HIV-related services collaborate in gathering research information of use in addressing shortcomings in local interventions. This is a demonstration of how research can be used as a political tool to influence policy makers in an area critical to the overall health of the community.

154

(7)

Anne E. Figert, Loyola University Chicago

Paul Kuehnert, Paul Kuehnert Consulting

CASE STUDY 19 Putting a Face to Lesbian Health Risk: A Collaborative Research Project Discrimination against lesbians by scientists, health care providers, and the general public has produced an organizational environment that has not always provided quality health care. In describing a collaborative project between the Lesbian Community Cancer Project and the Center for Research on Women and Gender, the authors detail the development of the Chicago Women's Health Survey, which gathered information on the differing needs and expectations of lesbians and nonlesbians in health care.

161

(8)

Mary McCauley II, Howard Brown Health Center-Women's Program

Ellie Emanuel, University of Wisconsin-Stout

Alice Dan, Center for Research on Women and Gender

Zylphia Ford, Chicago Department of Public Health

CASE STUDY 20 The Closing of Central State Hospital: An Alliance of Academic and Government Collaboration By studying the potential impact of the imminent closing of a state mental hospital, this university-state government collaboration functioned in a highly politically charged environment. The authors gained an understanding of issues concerning impartiality, maintaining research time lines in crisis situations, and constant interaction with all parties affected by the closing.

169

(8)

Eric R. Wright

Terry F. White, Indiana Consortium for Mental Health Services Research, Indiana University

Richard N. DeLiberty, Indiana Division of Mental Health

CASE STUDY 21 The Center for AIDS Prevention Studies' Collaboration Program: An Alliance of AIDS Scientists and Community-Based Organizations Two of the many studies coming out of the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies are discussed. One looks at AIDS prevention programs for prisoners and their families, and the other focuses on AIDS prevention among adolescents. The Use of peer educators and peer-led interventions distinguishes these approaches.

177

(13)

Diane Binson, Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, University of California, San Francisco

Gary Harper, Department of Psychology, DePaul University

Olga Grinstead and Katherine Haynes Sanstad, Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, University of California, San Francisco

CASE STUDY 22 Grassroots Approaches to Violence Prevention: Rainbow House's Choosing Non-Violence Institute A community-based organization and shelter for battered women enlisted the services of a university researcher to document the efficiency of a violence prevention program to justify foundation and government agency support for the program. This need for documentation of effectiveness is a common reason for many university-community collaborations. In this case, an emphasis on qualitative measures distinguishes the study from more common quantitative evaluation reports.

190

(9)

Nancy A. Matthews, Northeastern Illinois University

Anne Parry, Rainbow House

Part V Community Control and Voice

199

(44)

CASE STUDY 23 Research, Organizing, and the Campaign for Community Policing in Chicago Chicago has been the city where the most sustained community policing effort has taken place. However, as documented here, community organizations do not merely want to be helpers to the police, they want to change the practice of policing. This has produced tension between CANS, a citywide group representing community interests, and the Chicago Police Department.

202

(9)

Warren Friedman, Chicago Alliance for Neighborhood Safety

CASE STUDY 24 Chicago's Empowerment Zone and Citizen Participation A federal government-mandated program, "Empowerment Zones" represents a challenge to communities to become involved in economic development in Chicago's low-income communities. The struggle between community participation on the one hand and city control on the other, as well as the involvement of researchers in the development process, is documented.

211

(8)

Doug Gills, University of Illinois-Chicago

Wanda White, Community Workshop for Economic Development

CASE STUDY 25 The Imperfect Practice of Collaborative Research: The "Working Group on Neighborhoods" in Toledo, Ohio The land mines along the road of collaborative research are explored. A sociologist discusses what happens when an initially cooperative project turns adversarial and factionalized. These lessons in what to avoid can be valuable to other community-university projects.

219

(7)

Randy Stoecker, University of Toledo

CASE STUDY 26 Microenterprise Development in EI Salvador: Lessons for Both Sides of the Border In a country where communities typically have significantly fewer monetary and professional resources than U.S. communities, two researcher-activists examine micro-enterprise development in EI Salvador. Many of the models used in third world countries find their way into American communities. The development of the technical, management, and decision-making skills in the small community-controlled businesses studied here is of interest to communities in "developed" countries as well.

226

(7)

Gasper F. LoBiondo

S. J., Woodstock Theological Center (United States)

Rafael A. Pleitez, Jesuit Universidad Centroamericana (EI Salvador)

CASE STUDY 27 Participatory Action Research and Real Community-Based Planning in East St. Louis, Illinois This represents an elaborate university-community partnership that leveraged significant university resources to assist one of the poorest communities in the Midwest--a community that had once been the center of a thriving steel industry. With the blessings of the university president, faculty and students forged relationships with community organizations. Stung by past false promises from the university, community leaders took time to become involved in this new process. A comprehensive planning process, the development of a curriculum for community leaders, and implementation of projects are discussed.

233

(7)

Kenneth M. Reardon, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Conclusion: Collaboration Gives Hope and Voice in an Age of Disenchantment Changing the academic mind-set from thinking about "social problems" to instead putting energies into seeking "social solutions" is an outcome of the collaborative experience. University-community partnerships have the potential for enhancing the quality of students' educational experience at the same time that they strengthen the voice of community organizations and increase their capacity to address serious social issues.

240

(3)

Appendix

243

(7)

References

250

(7)

Index

257

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Building Community Social Science in Action

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