Change Research: A Case Study and Methods for Collaborative Social Workers Book

List of Tables and Figures ix

List of Abbreviations xi

Acknowledgments xiii

Prologue xv

Introduction 1

1 Changing Research /Researching Change 16

Change Research and Evidence-Based Practice 18

Top Down Versus Bottom Up 26

Research as a Form of Change Politics 31

Participatory Action Research and Community-Based Participatory Research: What's the Difference? 32

Conclusion 36

Discussion Questions 38

2 Reevaluating Evaluation Research: Sowing the Seeds of Distrust 39

The Research/Evaluation Nexus 40

The Perversities of Performance Measurement 45

Conclusion 49

Discussion Questions 50

3 Introducing Our Collaborative Research Case Study: Working with the Women's Community Revitalization Project 52

The Context for Our Research: Affordable Housing Advocacy and Our Research Partners 53

The Role of Low-Income Home-Repair Research in the Advocacy Campaign 59

Conclusion 62

Discussion Questions 62

4 Quantitative Data Analysis in a Collaboration Research Project: Low-Income Home Repair in Philadelphia 64

Data: Why, How, and What We Collected 67

Converting Population Estimates Into Funding Requests 76

Conclusion 80

Discussion Questions 81

5 "Everyday World Policy Analysis" and Low-Income Home Repair in Philadelphia: Walking Through Programs from the Client Perspective 82

"Everyday World Policy Analysis" and the Maze of Home-Repair Policies 83

Client Stories: Low-Income Homeownership from the Bottom Up 97

Conclusion 102

Discussion Questions 103

6 From Research to Recommendations: The Politics of Presentation 104

Researchers' Involvement in the Policy Process 105

The Policy Payoff: Advocacy Outcomes 111

Research Presentations: The Politics of Framing 117

Conclusion 118

Discussion Questions 119

7 The Challenges of Doing Collaborative Research 120

"On Tap" Rather Than "on Top" 121

Assessing the Collaborative Process in the Home-Repair Study 122

Advocates and Researchers: Matching Role Expectations 127

Conflicting Interests: Policy Change or Knowledge Production? 129

Creating a Collaborative Process 132

Different Roles, Mutual Trust 134

Conclusion 136

Discussion Questions 138

8 A Model for Collaborative Research 139

Conventional Research 140

Community-Organizing Research 142

A Change Research Stance 145

Developing Research Questions 150

Choosing Methods 152

Implementing the Research Project 154

Creating Hospitable Environments for Change Research 156

Allocating Resources 159

Trust and Power 162

Commitments, Obligations, and Negotiations in the Home-Repair Study 163

Creating a Lasting Partnership: Why and What It Signifies 168

Conclusion 170

Discussion Questions 171

Conclusion 172

Discussion Questions 179

Appendix A Resources for Doing Community-Based Research 181

Appendix B American Housing Survey Definitions 184

Notes 187

References 189

Index 203