Community initiatives — like our networked society as a whole — have long emphasized relationships to accomplish their goals. At the federal level, programs like Promise Neighborhoods promote collective, community-based approaches to advance educational outcomes. At the local level, Comprehensive Community Initiatives seek to mobilize and coordinate the activities of local groups to implement a variety of strategies for neighborhood improvement.

 

What does this reliance on networks suggest for the way we conduct implementation research? It is indisputable that relationships are required to accomplish work — almost by definition, action occurs in relationship to other actors. Emphasizing only the fact of relationships can result in fuzzy thinking about what it takes to implement a program or understand the conditions for its success.

Read the full article by David M. Greenberg about community initiatives on mdrc.org