Community Research;
Discovering Valuable Information about a Community
 by
Phil Bartle, PhD

Module Introduction.

Documents Included in this Research Module

 . Social Research for Mobilizers, practical, applied and purposeful;
 . Community Research, the social organization of communities;
 . Mobilizer Research Methods, getting preliminary data;
 . Research Questions, what the mobilizer should ask;
 . Keeping Records, managing Information;
 . Survey of Internal Community Resources, what is available to use?
 . Survey of External Resources, what can the community get from outside?

What research needs to be conducted?

 This module indicates the kind of research needed to be done to
 support mobilization, and offers some guidelines on how to go about
 doing that research. It is important directly for mobilizers, and
 contributes to a management information system needed by managers of
 mobilization.

 Essentially, there are two main kinds of research that are essential
 to community mobilization:
 research done by the mobilizer so as to prepare the most effective
 empowerment strategies (the focus of this module), and
 participatory appraisal done by the community (guided by the
 mobilizer) as an essential element of its participation in
 choosing, designing, implementing and monitoring community
 projects.

 The information generated by both kinds of research needs to be
 recorded in a systematic manner, so that it can be retrieved as
 needed, as part of an area programme of community
 empowerment. Without a system to manage the information, the time
 and effort of research will be wasted by duplication, inconsistency
 and incomplete information.

 As well as this research being an important part of the Mobilization
 Cycle, it needs to be part of the Management of a Mobilization
 Programme. Documents in this module include the following. Mobilizer
 Research Methods concentrates on the initial research that a
 mobilizer would do, finding out, for example, what would be
 acceptable and appropriate behaviour for finding out information
 needed for mobilizing.

 Research Questions provides the initial list of kinds of questions a
 mobilizer needs to answer in order to organize the community for
 self help. The paper, Keeping Records, introduces the mobilizer and
 manager to the need for keeping a paper trail, and storing
 information in a manner which allows its quick and effective
 retrieval when needed.

 The Survey of Internal Community Resources lists potential sources
 that a community could use, and which the mobilizer should assess
 prior to leading community members through participatory
 appraisal. Survey of External Resources reminds the reader of the
 danger of encouraging dependency thinking by relying too much on
 external sources, then describes governmental and non governmental
 sources and how they can be tapped.

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Updated: 2003 May 9