Misbehaving Organizations: A study of how community and faith based organizations assist in domesticating community residents
Open Access
- Author:
- Nyanungo, Hleziphi Naome
- Graduate Program:
- Adult Education
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- December 19, 2006
- Committee Members:
- Ian E Baptiste, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Fred Michael Schied, Committee Member
Mrinalini Sinha, Committee Member
Diane Krantz Mclaughlin, Committee Member - Keywords:
- institutional theory of organizations
capacity building
adult education
community organizations
participatory development
citizen participation
cultural historical activity theory
community education
community building - Abstract:
- ABSTRACT Community organizations (COs), the study proposes, are social actors whose behavior shapes the participation of local residents in community activities. Employing critical ethnography as a research approach, the study examines how COs—through activities they sponsor and/or support—promote and/or inhibit the participation of residents as citizens. Assuming that learning is an outcome of activity, the study argues that behaviors influencing citizen participation also promote and/or inhibit learning for citizen participation. Guiding the investigation is a theoretical framework that draws upon institutional theory of organizations, social constructivism, community theory, and cultural historical activity theory. Fieldwork for the study was conducted in a low-income, inner-city neighborhood of a major US city. Using standard ethnographic methods of participant observation, interviewing and document analysis, data was collected from four community and faith-based organizations that agreed to participate in the study. Analysis of the data revealed that in expressing a preference for skills that are legitimated in the broader society, the behavior of COs devalue the skills and knowledge of local residents. Furthermore, COs employ tools and processes that impose pre-defined problems and pre-formulated solutions, which consequently inhibit the citizen participation of local residents. Citizen participation is also inhibited through behavior of COs that affirms taken-for-granted assumptions about specific groups of people based on race, gender and class. The study also found that motives that drive the activities of COs impacted the participation of residents. Implications of these behavior patterns for learning for citizen participation are addressed. The study illustrates the complex power relationships negotiated by COs with entities within and outside the specific locality. The author proposes a continuum of citizen participation and discusses its implications for adult education in and for community.