Key research themes
1. How does distributed and collaborative leadership enhance effectiveness in community organizing across complex, multi-stakeholder settings?
This research theme focuses on the role and mechanisms of distributed leadership and collaboration in community organizing initiatives that involve multiple stakeholder groups addressing complex social problems. The studies analyze how shared leadership responsibilities, effective coordination, and inclusive engagement of diverse actors contribute to overcoming challenges such as resource limitations, competing interests, and fragmentation. Understanding these dynamics matters because modern community organizing increasingly requires cross-sector partnerships and volunteer contributions to tackle entrenched issues like public health disparities and social inequities, necessitating sustainable leadership models and collaborative processes.
2. How can digital technologies and online platforms be designed to support and enhance community-led organizing and stakeholder collaboration?
This research theme investigates the development and deployment of digital media, online communication tools, and digital platforms tailored for community-led initiatives and multi-stakeholder collaboration. The focus lies in understanding user needs, mediating communication among diverse actors, enabling information sharing, and sustaining collaboration in territorial and issue-based community contexts. This matters because digital tools have transformative potential to connect local agents, facilitate resource mobilization, and strengthen community capacity if designed with consideration of the unique social dynamics within organizing processes.
3. How does community-engaged research align with diverse community organizing approaches to build grassroots power and promote equity?
This research theme explores the intersection of community-engaged research (CER) methodologies and community organizing strategies, emphasizing the importance of aligning research methods with organizing goals to strengthen grassroots leadership and systemic change. It considers how research partnerships between academics and community organizers can produce actionable knowledge while sharing control, respecting community knowledge, and transforming hierarchical power relations. This alignment is essential for maximizing CER’s impact on social justice and sustained community empowerment.