Paul W Speer
Biographic Data
| ID | 187697 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Paul W Speer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Paul W |
| FAMILY NAME | Speer |
| SIGNATURE | SPEER P W |
| AFFILIATIONS | Vanderbilt University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0860-0652 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 45 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 733 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 45 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1992 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 15 |
Narrative change for health equity in grassroots community organizing
To achieve health equity, there is a need to act on the social determinants of health. This reality is now understood more widely, and in greater detail, than ever. Amid this movement toward health equity, there has been a natural gravitation to community organizing, which has long worked to produce more equitable systems and policies. Community organizing builds power through cycles of listening, participatory research, collective action, and re…
Stories of self, us, and now
Introduction: Community organizing initiatives, which build power through cycles of listening, participatory research, collective action, and reflection, have demonstrated the capacity to intervene on, complicate, and resist dominant societal narratives while promoting alternative public narratives focused on shared values and hope for a better future. Methods: To explore processes of public narrative change and their relationship to community an…
Participation in community organizing
This article reports cross‐sectional (Study 1) and longitudinal (Study 2) results from analyses of civic behaviors and attitudes among two groups: participants in grassroots community organizing in five US cities and a geographically balanced sample of their neighbors, many of whom were participating with other types of voluntary organizations (e.g., neighborhood‐based or school‐based groups). This analytic approach allowed for tests of differenc…
Community organizing
There is now wide recognition that grassroots community organizing is a uniquely necessary approach for contending with the persistent and escalating socioeconomic inequities that manifest as disparities across many societal domains, including housing, safety, education, and mental and physical health. The articles in this special issue report findings from studies designed to increase understanding of community organizing processes and produce a…
Transformation to leadership
Leadership development is an important practice in community organizing. Although this importance is often acknowledged, relatively little scholarship details how leadership development is actually executed, or how concepts of leadership development are applied in organizing practice. This study reports on a thesis conducted by a community organizer utilizing a critical reflexive methodology. Eight active leaders from a community organizing effor…
Participatory roles in community coalitions
Community-based coalitions seek to distribute leadership and decision-making broadly among participants to build capacity for improving local conditions. This is often difficult to achieve, however, due to a variety of structural and contextual factors. This study examines variance in decision-making influence among participants in 40 county-level substance abuse prevention coalitions. Participants' duration and frequency of involvement and the n…
Addressing the problems of urban education
Many urban school districts have been beset by a variety of problems including low achievement, high dropout, and disciplinary referral rates. Frequently, efforts to improve urban education are focused on interventions at the student, school, or district level. However, urban scholars recognize that many of these problems are embedded in urban poverty and related issues, including residential racial segregation, housing and food insecurity, and h…
Youth Cognitive Empowerment
Highlights Youth development of a cognitive understanding about social power Measurement of the factor structure of empowerment Advances empowerment theory and measurement with youth
Re-engaging social relationships and collective dimensions of organizing to revive democratic practice
The weakening of the everyday practice of democracy around the world presents profound challenges for social scientists working with an applied focus on issues of inequality and justice in social change. This paper examines community organizing (in the US) as an instrument for equitable and just social change, and argues that three interrelated trends are subtly undermining a core practice of organizing: developing social relationships. An expand…
Assessing Community Participation
How well do self-reported levels of community and organizational participation align with recorded acts of community and organizational participation? This study explores this question among participants in social action community organizing initiatives by comparing responses on a community participation scale designed to retrospectively assess community participation (T1, n = 482; T2, n = 220) with individual participants' attendance records in …
Community Organizing
Community organizing—a field of practice in which residents collaboratively investigate and undertake sustained collective action regarding social issues of mutual concern—has often proven an effective method for achieving changes in policies and systems at local, regional, and even national scales. The field is dynamic. It has expanded and has undergone numerous changes over recent decades. Research from a variety of disciplines has documented, …
Organization‐Level Predictors of Sustained Social Movement Participation
Long‐term sustained participation represents one of the most important resources available to community organizations and social movement organizations (SMOs). The participatory literature on community and SMOs has identified a host of individual‐level factors that influence participation beyond initial engagement, and has more recently identified contextual factors that influence participation. This study builds upon current understandings of pa…
Community organizing practices in a globalizing era
In the postindustrial era, global economic processes have constrained the ability of local agencies, service providers, and civic groups to respond to systemic challenges in public health. Community health psychology can benefit by focusing on interventions through mediating structures that develop innovative methods of leveraging power in the context of globalizing economic forces. Promising methods include careful analysis of power within targe…
The Influence of Participation, Gender and Organizational Sense of Community on Psychological Empowerment
This study explored the influence of participation, gender and organizational sense of community (SOC) on both the intrapersonal and interactional components of psychological empowerment (PE). Participants were residents (n = 562) involved in community organizing efforts in five U.S. communities. Measures of participation and SOC were tailored to community organization contexts. SOC assessed three dimensions: (1) connection of members to the orga…
An Approach to Scholarly Impact through Strategic Engagement in Community‐Based Research
Community‐based research (CBR) has potential to enhance the impact of applied social science research. Yet, CBR encompasses an array of different forms of engagement with a variety of types of community partners. Herein, we describe an approach to CBR for increasing the likelihood of research impact on social issues. We call this approach strategic engagement. Strategic engagement can be understood as CBR that is conceptualized and conducted with…
Community Participation and Psychological Empowerment
Empowerment theory provides both a value orientation for community-based research and practice, and a conceptual framework for understanding and evaluating interventions. One critical question in empowerment theory involves whether a reciprocal (bidirectional) relationship exists between community participation (CP) and psychological empowerment (PE). This study applied structural equation modeling (SEM) with two waves of survey data from a cross…
Local Community Organizing and Change
This article presents a detailed case study of a local group of citizens organizing to hold governmental and nongovernmental organizations accountable for improving housing and communities in Kansas City, MO. The case study draws on a review of organizational archival documents (i.e., organizational attendance records and internal reports); public documents from local, state, and federal agencies; media coverage; and a series of qualitative inter…
Contextual Influences on Participation in Community Organizing
This article reports results from a study of contextual influences on participation among people involved in congregation-based community organizing. Data are drawn from 11,538 individual participants in 115 congregations taking part in one of five local organizing initiatives in different cities over a five-year period. Analyses used 3-level longitudinal models with binary indicators of participation/non-participation in group meetings each succ…
The mediating influence of organizational characteristics in the relationship between organizational type and relational power
Processes of psychological empowerment for members of community‐based organizations may be strongly influenced by organizational factors. Using survey data from a random sample of urban residents ( n = 974), the present study examines how individual perceptions of empowering features of organizations (group‐based belief system, role opportunity, leadership, and social support) and sense of community relate to participants' psychological empowerme…
Social class as moderator of the relationship between (dis)empowering processes and psychological empowerment
This study examined whether social class moderated the relationship between empowering and disempowering processes and psychological empowerment (PE) in a sample of individuals from five community organizing initiatives ( N =490). Hierarchical regression analyses were used to test the relationship between community participation (CP) and alienation on the intrapersonal and interactional components of PE. For the intrapersonal component of PE, CP …
A challenge for community research and action
Validation of A brief sense of community scale
First‐order and second‐order models of sense of community (SOC) were tested using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of data gathered from a random sample of community residents ( n =293) located in the midwestern United States. An 8‐item Brief Sense of Community Scale (BSCS) was developed to represent the SOC dimensions of needs fulfillment, group membership, influence, and shared emotional connection. The CFA results for the BSCS supported both…
Social power and forms of change
Prilleltensky's notion of psychopolitical validity elevates power as a key phenomenon of interest within community psychology. Importantly, two types of psychopolitical validity are articulated: epistemic—the explicit study of power, and transformative—understanding the role of power in social change. In this article, the author develops the concepts of epistemic and transformative power by presenting a framework for understanding their applicati…
Community organizations and sense of community
The Community Organization Sense of Community Scale (COSOC) is a frequently used or cited measure of the construct in community psychology and other disciplines, despite a lack of confirmation of its underlying 4‐factor framework. Two studies were conducted to test the hypothesized structure of the COSOC, the potential effects of method bias on psychometric properties, and whether a revised measure (COSOC‐R) yielded improved model‐to‐data fit. St…
Getting the social organism thinking
The ability of community researchers/practitioners to facilitate systems change is constrained by social power—particularly the capacity to shape ideology [S. Lukes ( 1974 ) . Power: A radical view . Hampshire: MacMillan] and frequently power molds ideologies which undermine systems thinking. Following what Mills [C. W. Mills, ( 1959 ). The sociological imagination . New York: Oxford University Press] (termed the “sociological imagination”, this …
Validation of A brief sense of community scale
First‐order and second‐order models of sense of community (SOC) were tested using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of data gathered from a random sample of community residents ( n =293) located in the midwestern United States. An 8‐item Brief Sense of Community Scale (BSCS) was developed to represent the SOC dimensions of needs fulfillment, group membership, influence, and shared emotional connection. The CFA results for the BSCS supported both…
Community organizing
An important contribution to empowerment theory and community psychology practice can be made by examining how the concept of social power is developed and manifested in the context of community organizing. Theory and practice may be further informed through an ecological analysis of organizing processes and interventions. Lessons from a national community organizing network highlight the relationship between empowerment and power through a set o…
Psychometric properties of an empowerment scale
Empowerment has become an important goal for social workers in policy and direct practice domains. The purpose of this study was to test a measure of empowerment at an individual level of analysis that tapped cognitive, emotional, and behavioral dimensions in community-organizing contexts. This article reports the psychometric properties of a 27-item scale from a sample of 974 randomly selected people. The applicability of this measure is broad, …
Community Organizing
Community organizing—a field of practice in which residents collaboratively investigate and undertake sustained collective action regarding social issues of mutual concern—has often proven an effective method for achieving changes in policies and systems at local, regional, and even national scales. The field is dynamic. It has expanded and has undergone numerous changes over recent decades. Research from a variety of disciplines has documented, …
Measuring the Intrapersonal Component of Psychological Empowerment
The Sociopolitical Control Scale (SPCS) is a widely used measure of the intrapersonal component of psychological empowerment. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were conducted with data from two samples to test the hypothesized structure of the SPCS, the potential effects of method bias on the measure's psychometric properties, and whether a revised version of the scale (SPCS‐R) yielded improved model fit. Sample 1 included 316 randomly selected …
The Influence of Participation, Gender and Organizational Sense of Community on Psychological Empowerment
This study explored the influence of participation, gender and organizational sense of community (SOC) on both the intrapersonal and interactional components of psychological empowerment (PE). Participants were residents (n = 562) involved in community organizing efforts in five U.S. communities. Measures of participation and SOC were tailored to community organization contexts. SOC assessed three dimensions: (1) connection of members to the orga…
Contextual Influences on Participation in Community Organizing
This article reports results from a study of contextual influences on participation among people involved in congregation-based community organizing. Data are drawn from 11,538 individual participants in 115 congregations taking part in one of five local organizing initiatives in different cities over a five-year period. Analyses used 3-level longitudinal models with binary indicators of participation/non-participation in group meetings each succ…
Social power and forms of change
Prilleltensky's notion of psychopolitical validity elevates power as a key phenomenon of interest within community psychology. Importantly, two types of psychopolitical validity are articulated: epistemic—the explicit study of power, and transformative—understanding the role of power in social change. In this article, the author develops the concepts of epistemic and transformative power by presenting a framework for understanding their applicati…
Community organizations and sense of community
The Community Organization Sense of Community Scale (COSOC) is a frequently used or cited measure of the construct in community psychology and other disciplines, despite a lack of confirmation of its underlying 4‐factor framework. Two studies were conducted to test the hypothesized structure of the COSOC, the potential effects of method bias on psychometric properties, and whether a revised measure (COSOC‐R) yielded improved model‐to‐data fit. St…
Measuring sense of community
Instability in the factor structure of the Sense of Community Index (SCI) was tested as a methodological artifact. Confirmatory factor analyses, tested with two data sets, supported neither the proposed one‐factor nor the four‐factor (needs fulfillment, group membership, influence, and emotional connection) SCI. Results demonstrated that the SCI was best described by four factors in combination with two method factors (i.e., one factor including …
The intentional exercise of power
Social class as moderator of the relationship between (dis)empowering processes and psychological empowerment
This study examined whether social class moderated the relationship between empowering and disempowering processes and psychological empowerment (PE) in a sample of individuals from five community organizing initiatives ( N =490). Hierarchical regression analyses were used to test the relationship between community participation (CP) and alienation on the intrapersonal and interactional components of PE. For the intrapersonal component of PE, CP …
In search of community
Getting the social organism thinking
The ability of community researchers/practitioners to facilitate systems change is constrained by social power—particularly the capacity to shape ideology [S. Lukes ( 1974 ) . Power: A radical view . Hampshire: MacMillan] and frequently power molds ideologies which undermine systems thinking. Following what Mills [C. W. Mills, ( 1959 ). The sociological imagination . New York: Oxford University Press] (termed the “sociological imagination”, this …
The mediating influence of organizational characteristics in the relationship between organizational type and relational power
Processes of psychological empowerment for members of community‐based organizations may be strongly influenced by organizational factors. Using survey data from a random sample of urban residents ( n = 974), the present study examines how individual perceptions of empowering features of organizations (group‐based belief system, role opportunity, leadership, and social support) and sense of community relate to participants' psychological empowerme…
Re-engaging social relationships and collective dimensions of organizing to revive democratic practice
The weakening of the everyday practice of democracy around the world presents profound challenges for social scientists working with an applied focus on issues of inequality and justice in social change. This paper examines community organizing (in the US) as an instrument for equitable and just social change, and argues that three interrelated trends are subtly undermining a core practice of organizing: developing social relationships. An expand…
Local Community Organizing and Change
This article presents a detailed case study of a local group of citizens organizing to hold governmental and nongovernmental organizations accountable for improving housing and communities in Kansas City, MO. The case study draws on a review of organizational archival documents (i.e., organizational attendance records and internal reports); public documents from local, state, and federal agencies; media coverage; and a series of qualitative inter…
Community organizational learning
We present a three‐dimensional cube framework to help community organizational researchers and administrators think about an organization's learning and empowerment‐related structures and processes in terms of firstorder (incremental or ameliorative) and second‐order (transformative) change at the individual, organizational, and community levels. To illustrate application of the framework, case studies of three different types of exemplary nonpro…
Risk of assaultive violence and alcohol availability in New Jersey
OBJECTIVES: This study examined the relationship between rate of assaultive violence and density of alcohol outlets in New Jersey. METHODS: Data pertaining to assaultive violence, alcohol outlet density, and sociodemographic factors were obtained from municipalities in New Jersey (n = 223) and assessed through bivariate and multivariate analyses. RESULTS: Sociodemographic factors accounted for 70% (R(2)=.70) of the variance in the rate of assault…
Assessing Community Participation
How well do self-reported levels of community and organizational participation align with recorded acts of community and organizational participation? This study explores this question among participants in social action community organizing initiatives by comparing responses on a community participation scale designed to retrospectively assess community participation (T1, n = 482; T2, n = 220) with individual participants' attendance records in …
Academic performance among at-risk children
Community organizing practices in a globalizing era
In the postindustrial era, global economic processes have constrained the ability of local agencies, service providers, and civic groups to respond to systemic challenges in public health. Community health psychology can benefit by focusing on interventions through mediating structures that develop innovative methods of leveraging power in the context of globalizing economic forces. Promising methods include careful analysis of power within targe…
An Approach to Scholarly Impact through Strategic Engagement in Community‐Based Research
Community‐based research (CBR) has potential to enhance the impact of applied social science research. Yet, CBR encompasses an array of different forms of engagement with a variety of types of community partners. Herein, we describe an approach to CBR for increasing the likelihood of research impact on social issues. We call this approach strategic engagement. Strategic engagement can be understood as CBR that is conceptualized and conducted with…
Predicting Violent Crime Using Urban and Suburban Densities
Community organizing
There is now wide recognition that grassroots community organizing is a uniquely necessary approach for contending with the persistent and escalating socioeconomic inequities that manifest as disparities across many societal domains, including housing, safety, education, and mental and physical health. The articles in this special issue report findings from studies designed to increase understanding of community organizing processes and produce a…
In search of community
Community organizing
An important contribution to empowerment theory and community psychology practice can be made by examining how the concept of social power is developed and manifested in the context of community organizing. Theory and practice may be further informed through an ecological analysis of organizing processes and interventions. Lessons from a national community organizing network highlight the relationship between empowerment and power through a set o…
Organizing for power
The purpose of this paper is to present a case study of two conceptually similar community organizing efforts that highlights commonalities and important differences. This study first presents a qualitative analysis of two approaches to community organizing for power. Our analysis was made possible by participation and collaboration with members of community organizations which opened the way for access to documents, events, interviews, and setti…
Mechanisms of Empowerment
The paper reports a study of participatory experiences among members of power-based community organizations. A path model of psychological empowerment was tested. Perceived relational characteristics of the community organization were hypothesized as exogenous to participation, perceived organizational power and psychological empowerment. An alternative model was reproduced with the strongest relationships between perceived organizational intimac…
Mechanisms of Empowerment
The paper reports a study of participatory experiences among members of power-based community organizations. A path model of psychological empowerment was tested. Perceived relational characteristics of the community organization were hypothesized as exogenous to participation, perceived organizational power and psychological empowerment. An alternative model was reproduced with the strongest relationships between perceived organizational intimac…
Risk of assaultive violence and alcohol availability in New Jersey
OBJECTIVES: This study examined the relationship between rate of assaultive violence and density of alcohol outlets in New Jersey. METHODS: Data pertaining to assaultive violence, alcohol outlet density, and sociodemographic factors were obtained from municipalities in New Jersey (n = 223) and assessed through bivariate and multivariate analyses. RESULTS: Sociodemographic factors accounted for 70% (R(2)=.70) of the variance in the rate of assault…
Sense of community in community organizations
Sense of community in community organizations
A framework for measuring psychological sense of community for community organizations was presented, and an instrument to measure community organization sense of community was developed. The framework consisted of four components: Relationship to the Organization, Organization as Mediator, Influence of the Community Organization, and Bond to the Community. Two studies examined the dimensionality, reliability, and validity of the instrument. Stud…
Psychometric properties of an empowerment scale
Empowerment has become an important goal for social workers in policy and direct practice domains. The purpose of this study was to test a measure of empowerment at an individual level of analysis that tapped cognitive, emotional, and behavioral dimensions in community-organizing contexts. This article reports the psychometric properties of a 27-item scale from a sample of 974 randomly selected people. The applicability of this measure is broad, …
Academic performance among at-risk children
Intrapersonal and interactional empowerment
This study builds on previous research linking empowerment theory with community participation. Empowerment theory has been criticized as overly individualistic and conflict-oriented resulting in an emphasis on mastery and control rather than cooperation and community. The purpose was to develop a measure of interactional empowerment (assessing intellectual understandings of power and social change) and compare scores on this measure with scores …
The Relationship between Social Cohesion and Empowerment
Empowerment theory represents an expansive view of individual and collective behavior that includes the active participation of individuals and groups in altering and shaping the socioenvironmental context. Critical to health educators are local interventions that yield participation of community members and empowerment for participants. The concept of social cohesion embraces participation but expands this behavioral emphasis to incorporate noti…
Spatial dynamics of alcohol availability, neighborhood structure and violent crime.
OBJECTIVE: This study examined the relationship between neighborhood social structure, alcohol outlet densities and violent crime in Camden, New Jersey. METHOD: Data pertaining to neighborhood social structure, violent crime and alcohol density were collected for 98 block groups, and analyzed using bivariate, multivariate and spatial analyses. RESULTS: Each type of analysis showed that those areas with high alcohol outlet densities experienced mo…
Community Psychology Perspectives on Social Capital Theory and Community Development Practice
Concepts and research from community psychology can inform community development practice by reframing social capital theory. Social capital (SC) is generally defined and measured at the interpersonal, community, institutional, or societal levels in terms of networks (bridging) and norms of reciprocity and trust (bonding) within those networks. SC should be analyzed in a multi-level ecological framework in terms of both individual psychological a…
Cognitive Empowerment of African Americans and Caucasians
This study explored relationships between race, citizen participation, and three dimensions of cognitive empowerment: understandings of power through relationships, political functioning, and shaping ideology. Results revealed that, unlike emotional empowerment, cognitive empowerment was not directly related to citizen participation, and effects of participation on cognitive empowerment did not differ for African Americans and Caucasians. Importa…
The intentional exercise of power
Predicting Violent Crime Using Urban and Suburban Densities
Measuring the Intrapersonal Component of Psychological Empowerment
The Sociopolitical Control Scale (SPCS) is a widely used measure of the intrapersonal component of psychological empowerment. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were conducted with data from two samples to test the hypothesized structure of the SPCS, the potential effects of method bias on the measure's psychometric properties, and whether a revised version of the scale (SPCS‐R) yielded improved model fit. Sample 1 included 316 randomly selected …
Measuring sense of community
Instability in the factor structure of the Sense of Community Index (SCI) was tested as a methodological artifact. Confirmatory factor analyses, tested with two data sets, supported neither the proposed one‐factor nor the four‐factor (needs fulfillment, group membership, influence, and emotional connection) SCI. Results demonstrated that the SCI was best described by four factors in combination with two method factors (i.e., one factor including …
Getting the social organism thinking
The ability of community researchers/practitioners to facilitate systems change is constrained by social power—particularly the capacity to shape ideology [S. Lukes ( 1974 ) . Power: A radical view . Hampshire: MacMillan] and frequently power molds ideologies which undermine systems thinking. Following what Mills [C. W. Mills, ( 1959 ). The sociological imagination . New York: Oxford University Press] (termed the “sociological imagination”, this …
Community organizational learning
We present a three‐dimensional cube framework to help community organizational researchers and administrators think about an organization's learning and empowerment‐related structures and processes in terms of firstorder (incremental or ameliorative) and second‐order (transformative) change at the individual, organizational, and community levels. To illustrate application of the framework, case studies of three different types of exemplary nonpro…
A challenge for community research and action
Validation of A brief sense of community scale
First‐order and second‐order models of sense of community (SOC) were tested using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of data gathered from a random sample of community residents ( n =293) located in the midwestern United States. An 8‐item Brief Sense of Community Scale (BSCS) was developed to represent the SOC dimensions of needs fulfillment, group membership, influence, and shared emotional connection. The CFA results for the BSCS supported both…
Social power and forms of change
Prilleltensky's notion of psychopolitical validity elevates power as a key phenomenon of interest within community psychology. Importantly, two types of psychopolitical validity are articulated: epistemic—the explicit study of power, and transformative—understanding the role of power in social change. In this article, the author develops the concepts of epistemic and transformative power by presenting a framework for understanding their applicati…
Community organizations and sense of community
The Community Organization Sense of Community Scale (COSOC) is a frequently used or cited measure of the construct in community psychology and other disciplines, despite a lack of confirmation of its underlying 4‐factor framework. Two studies were conducted to test the hypothesized structure of the COSOC, the potential effects of method bias on psychometric properties, and whether a revised measure (COSOC‐R) yielded improved model‐to‐data fit. St…
Community Health and Development (39 works) · Psychology (37 works) · Political science (33 works) · Sociology (26 works) · Health Policy Implementation Science (23 works) · Empowerment (21 works) · Social Psychology (19 works) · Public relations (18 works) · Community organization (11 works) · Homelessness and Social Issues (11 works)