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Working Pasteur's Quadrant: Harnessing Science and Action for Community Change
Author(s) -
Price Richard H.,
Behrens Teresa
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
american journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.113
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1573-2770
pISSN - 0091-0562
DOI - 10.1023/a:1023950402338
Subject(s) - community psychology , health psychology , field (mathematics) , context (archaeology) , action (physics) , sociology , process (computing) , prevention science , public relations , psychology , engineering ethics , social psychology , public health , political science , computer science , medicine , engineering , paleontology , physics , nursing , mathematics , quantum mechanics , pure mathematics , biology , operating system , psychiatry , intervention (counseling)
Community psychology in general and the field of prevention in particular has unquestioningly accepted the assumption that the research process should proceed in a linear fashion from a search for basic knowledge to application in the community context. This ignores the compelling insight offered by Stokes (1997) that the drive for new knowledge and the pursuit of application can be combined in a single effort. If research in community psychology pursues the drive for application without an equal commitment to the development of knowledge about underlying community processes of social cooperation and change, it will become a field less capable of innovative and enduring contributions to community well‐being and effectiveness. Opportunities abound in community psychology for the simultaneous pursuit of new knowledge and more effective practice. We offer the example of a community leadership development program to promote collective efficacy as a case in point.