Sandy Lazarus

A critical review of instruments assessing characteristics of community

Community development is critical in South African and other low- to middle-income contexts characterised by unemployment, violence, poverty and poor infrastructure. The current asset-based trend in community research emphasises constructive community development and change through the mobilisation of existing and unrecognised community resources and skills. Following this trend we critically examine the conceptual soundness and logic of asset-based community assessment instruments. We give particular attention to measures of social capital, social cohesion, community resilience, and sense of community. Our review reveals that while the asset-based approaches embody an important shift away from the deficits orientation, their associated instruments, which bring discursive impositions, are marked by conceptual and operational ambiguities, troubling assumptions about community and uneasy power dynamics in their implementation. We suggest that such challenges may be addressed through the employment of measures that draw on both quantitative and qualitative paradigms, and that assume participatory strategies to implementation.

The Philosophical Assumptions, Utility and Challenges of Asset Mapping Approaches to Community Engagement

This literature review is a discussion of asset-based approaches to community engagement. Following a literature search, we identified several asset mapping approaches: Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD); Participatory Inquiry into Religious Health Assets, Networks and Agency (PIRHANA); Community Health Assets Mapping for Partnerships (CHAMP); the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA); Planning for Real® and approaches using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). These approaches are framed by assumptions about ‘assets’, ‘needs’, and ‘community’ and their associated community engagement methods that may be influenced by dynamics related to conflict, competition and language. We conclude that asset mapping approaches derive their value from their capacities to support partnership building, consensus creation, and community agency and control.

Lessons learnt from a community-based participatory research project in a South African rural context

The Railton Community Assessment Project constituted a community-based, participatory form of research that sought to identify community needs and assets for the purposes of prioritising actions to support community development planning and funding allocation in a local community in a South African rural context. The research design, which included 11 research phases, each including a number of research activities, was collaboratively developed and implemented collectively. The design included the establishment of a collaborative planning and accountability forum; interviews with key informants; a stratified household survey; community asset-mapping workshops with youth, adults, elders, and services providers; and community feedback processes. The findings of the research highlighted a number of community assets and needs which were directly linked to the identification of priority actions and recommendations by the community. The major strength of this study was its successful application of a Community-Based Participatory Research approach, which constitutes a particular focus for this article. Furthermore, this case study provides a useful example of how psychologists can contribute their knowledge and skills to promote general community well-being.

Community-Based Participatory Research a Low-Income Setting: An Illustrative Case of Study

This article describes a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach in a low-income setting. Using the SCRATCHMAPS project as a case example and with literature control, we show that CBPR is influenced by dynamics relating to knowledge and power, resources and power, participation and power, as well as community dynamics and research methodology. We conclude that the CBPR approach offers a number of opportunities to conduct rigorous and trustworthy research and to contribute to individual and community development, despite associated difficulties.

Community Asset Mapping as a Critical Participatory Research Method

This chapter explores the use of community asset mapping as a strategy for achieving liberatory ideals. This exploration draws on one case illustration in a peri-urban Western Cape context, SCRATCHMAPS (Spiritual Capacity and Religious Assets for Transforming Community Health through Mobilizing Males for Peace and Safety). This project was located within a community-based participatory research approach, and used community asset mapping as a key strategy for community building. The chapter covers the theory and practice of asset mapping as method, discusses its application in the above context, and offers a critical account of the liberation capacities of such a method. Both successes and challenges experienced in this project are highlighted, and suggestions for how to address the ambiguities and challenges of adopting asset mapping as a critical approach to community building are offered. The authors argue that community asset mapping, guided by the values and principles of critical forms of participatory research, is a viable strategy for achieving liberatory ideals.

Identifying and Mobilising Factors That Promote Community Peace

The identification and mobilisation of factors that promote peace is central to peace promotion. Through a community-based participatory research project, SCRATCHMAPS (Spiritual Capacity and Religious Assets for Transforming Community Health through mobilising Males for Peace and Safety), a grounded-theoretical study in a low-income community in South Africa, including both quantitative and qualitative methods and forms of analysis, was conducted to explore community members’ perceptions of factors that promote peace. The findings presented in this chapter reveal a major emphasis on ‘intangible’ factors, many of them linked to a new concept of ‘spiritual capacity’, that the community believe play a central role in promoting peace. In line with initiatives that combine research and action in efforts to promote peace, the authors briefly describe how these findings were used to direct a community intervention aimed at mobilising religious assets and enabling spiritual capacity to promote peace. Structural factors such as employment and economic security are centrally important in any attempts to promote peace, but the authors argue that more attention should be focused on understanding and mobilising factors such as compassion, respect, and hope, at different levels of the social system. This raises a number of challenges to those involved in peace psychology.

Community psychology in South Africa: origins, developments, and manifestations

This article represents a South African contribution to the growing international body of knowledge on histories of community psychology. We trace the early antecedents of social-community psychology interventions and describe the social forces and academic influences that provided the impetus for the emergence and development of community psychology in South Africa. We then draw on various sources, including undocumented small histories of organized groups and individuals, to present on account of the emergence, development, and focus of community psychology in South Africa. We also very briefly describe community-focused work in other selected African countries. In the penultimate section, we take a critical look at the notions of “community” embedded in community psychology practice in South Africa, and then by way of conclusion, we describe the trajectory of community psychology and speculate about its future in the country.