Using Concept Mapping to Articulate Community Organizing Outcomes

• In Event: Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: Are We in This Together? The Relational Nature of Community Organizing and Participatory Action Research

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore how well concept mapping (Trochim, 1989) can articulate community organizing outcomes. Twenty-one leaders from a grassroots community organization in Denver, Colorado participated in a concept mapping process. The resulting concept map was then analyzed in relation to (a) leaders’ interpretive comments and (b) material presented on the community organization’s website. The purpose of the interpretive analysis was to determine whether the map is a credible (Lincoln & Guba, 1985) representation of community organizing outcomes. The study concludes that the concept map is indeed credible and that concept mapping is a promising tool for understanding community organizing outcomes.

Author

• Rebecca R. Orsi, Colorado State University