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

· 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.

Acknowledgments
1. "But I Don¿t Do Research"
"But I Don¿t Do Research"
"So What Is Research?"
"Okay, So I Do Research Already. Why Do I Need to Learn About It?"
"I¿m Already Running Full-Out Managing Our Programs. How Can I Do More Research Too?"
"I¿m Still Not Convinced. But Just In Case, Where Do I Start?"
"So Where Do I and My Community Fit In?"
Conclusion and Coming Attractions
The Goose Story
Resources
Notes
2. The Goose Approach to Research
Have You Ever Felt Like an Interloper?
Participatory Approaches to Research
A Participatory Approach to Project-Based Research
Building Participatory Relationships: The Researcher Side
Building Participatory Relationships: The Community Side
Loose Gravel
Conclusion
Resources
Notes
3. Head and Hand Together: A Project-Based Research Model
The Head and Hand Split
From Head and Hand to Research and Action
Of Programs and Projects
The Project Model: Diagnose, Prescribe, Implement, Evaluate
The Project Model and Participatory Flexibility
Where Are You In the Project Cycle?
Loose Gravel
Conclusion
Resources
Notes
4. Diagnosing
How to Survive on a Deserted Island
The Impetus for Diagnosis
Structures for a Diagnostic Process: The Core Group
Strategies for a Diagnostic Process: Problems and Opportunities
The Problems Approach: Needs Assessment
The Opportunities Approach: Asset Mapping
Of Needs and Resources
Loose Gravel
Conclusion
Resources
Notes
5. Prescribing: Researching Options
Which Way Should You Go From Here?
Inward-Looking vs. Outward-Looking Social Change: Services and Policies
A Planning Approach
The Special Case of Policy Prescriptions
Loose Gravel
Conclusion
Resources
Notes
6. Implementing: When Research Is the Project
Making Who-ville Heard
Research as Action
Community Research
Target Research
Loose Gravel
Conclusion
Resources
Notes
7. Evaluation
Back to the Future, or Messing With the Space-Time Continuum
Choices in Evaluation
Participatory Evaluation From the Beginning
Participatory Evaluation as an Integrated Process
Loose Gravel
Conclusion
Resources
Notes
8. Beyond Information: Research as an Organizational Lifestyle
The Montessori, Goose Approach, Popular Education, Tennis Coach Model of Project-Based Research
The Project-Based Research Cycle Revisited
Role Models for Research as a Daily Practice
Behind the Fun: Information Management and Information Technology
Loose Gravel: Information Myths and Monsters
In Conclusion
Notes
Appendix A: Strategic Planning
Appendix B: Research Ethics
Appendix C: Writing Proposals
Appendix D: Data Resources
Index
About the Author

Randy Stoecker is a Professor of Community and Environmental Sociology at the University of Wisconsin, with a joint appointment at the University of Wisconsin Extension Center for Community and Economic Development. He is the moderator/editor of COMM-ORG: The On-Line Conference on Community Organizing and Development (http://comm-org.wisc.edu). His areas of expertise include community organizing and development, participatory action research/evaluation, and community information technology. He has been involved in a wide variety of community-based participatory research projects and participatory evaluations with community development corporations, community organizing groups, and community information technology programs across North America and Australia. He also helped build and evaluate university-community collaborations through the Corella and Bertram F. Bonner Foundation's Learn and Serve America Community Research Project. Randy trains, speaks and writes extensively on community organizing and development, community-based participatory research, service learning, and community information technology. He is author of Defending Community (1994) co-author of Community-Based Research and Higher Education (2003), and co-editor of The Unheard Voices: Community Organizations and Service Learning (2009). You can find his complete curriculum vitae at http://comm-org.wisc.edu/stoeckerfolio/stoeckvita.htm. He resides in Madison, Wisconsin with his wife and 50-pound standard poodle (his daughter is now away at college), and wishes he lived in a society where research has become such an integral part of the culture that people are no longer fooled into making self-destructive political choices.