Community-based participatory research has a long-term commitment to principles of equity and justice with decades of research showcasing the added value of power-sharing and participatory involvement of community members for achieving health, community capacity, policy, and social justice outcomes. Missing, however, has been a clear articulation…

This study attempts to analyze and compare the structure of influence in two rural communities in southern Ohio with population centers of less than 10,000 inhabitants. (For a study of one of the communities only, see AC 010 451.) The two communities are studied as to reputed influentials, the business and economic subsystem, the civic…

The structure of influence in a community is the ordering and patterning of the interaction within a system based on the element power (influence) and all other elements as they relate to the use of influence within the social system. The structure of influence in a rural community, Riverview (a pseudonym for the town), Ohio, was analyzed, using…

The proliferation of community power structure studies and their results have led many social researchers to the conclusion that the principle explanation for many diverse findings rests with the disciplinary bias of the researchers. The purpose of this study was to make some tentative effort at explaining power structure characteristics as a…

The orientation, interaction, and personal and social characteristics of an area development leadership group in Iowa were analyzed with the aim of helping plan educational efforts for the Extension Service. Objectives were to determine the extent of communication of selected social system elements by the state staff to the leadership group;…

A longitudinal study was made of Prairie City, Iowa wherein the personal and social characteristics of the 1962 power actor pool were compared with characteristics of the 1973 power actor pool to test the hypothesis that: the personal and social characteristics of power actors will not change significantly over time. Procedures for identifying…

Purposes of this guide for change agents are to (1) present four methods for identifying community power actors (community leaders), (2) provide a description of how change agents might use each of the four methods, (3) compare the four methods, (4) suggest ways to use a combination of methods or combine elements from various methods, and (5)…

The preparatory manual is one of a series produced by the Refugee Welfare Training Team in Qui Nhon, Binh-Dinh Province, Vietnam, for use in training teams of government personnel to work with refugees. The purpose was to improve living conditions, overcome lethargy and despair, develop a community structure, engage group action, and prepare for…

To examine the effects of the 1978-81 oil and gas boom on social and economic relations and institutions in Caldwell, Texas, researchers gathered data about the community using census information, historical accounts, official records, publications, observations, interviews, and surveys of 133 residents, 91 businesses, and 40 oil field service…

Social power is defined as the ability to affect group decisions; power actors are those individuals who seek and exercise power and affect group decisions. Power structure research was conducted in Kershaw County, South Carolina in 1971 and 1977. Although methodologies differed, both surveys identified and interviewed power actors for the county,…

A RURAL DAIRY COMMUNITY IN UPSTATE NEW YORK IS THE SUBJECT OF THIS STUDY WRITTEN AFTER 3 YEARS OF PARTICIPATION BY THE AUTHORS IN THE DAILY LIFE OF THE COMMUNITY. THE ANALYSIS INCLUDES DESCRIPTIONS OF (1) THE VARIOUS SOCIAL CLASS GROUPS AND THEIR ECONOMIC PHILOSOPHIES AND SOCIAL ATTITUDES, (2) THE POLITICAL POWERS, BOTH VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE, AND…