Community Enrichment Evaluation: Operationalizing community enrichment for evaluation practices
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Authors
Besser, Jacob Cutler
Issue Date
2022
Type
Thesis
Language
Keywords
Community , Community enrichment , Evaluation , Social Space , Socio-geographical settings , Sociology of valuation
Alternative Title
Abstract
Community is a widely contested concept, and what positive or negative outcomes of community exist are highly subjective. This research proposes community enrichment as a process to assess and evaluate the state of the community, its outcomes as well as its investments. In this body of research, community enrichment is organized into an originally composed five-dimensional framework. I parameterize community to the concept of social space and emphasize the social constructions of community. I put less emphasis on traditional community needs surveys which inquire about the perspectives of individuals residing within the community. Instead, I put the lens on community as the space to which individuals belong, and I use community enrichment assessment and evaluation to demonstrate attributes of the community. The core purpose of this research is to propose an operationalized conceptualization for community enrichment as a body of theoretical ideas that would work in evaluation practices. Community enrichment evaluation contributes to the framework of sociological valuation and draws inspiration from social impact assessments. These five dimensions work well to exhaustively organize variables that would influence community enrichment. Each dimension is a theoretical concept that is widely explored and used within social science literature. These dimensions are universally present in all communities, the composition of the variables from each dimension defines the community. The five dimensions of community enrichment are: sense of belonging, community resilience, solidarity, social sustainability, and culture/identity. This research is a pilot study that establishes the groundwork for assessment and evaluation practices in community enrichment.