Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Evaluation of community engagement has historically avoided or ignored the question of the efficiency of the processes used. This paper suggests a way of measuring efficiency that is robust, quantifiable, straightforward to calculate and intelligible. Curiosity about a striking feature of two case studies led to the realisation that there are significant parallels between community engagement and theoretical ecology. Some of these parallels are briefly explored before the ecology analogy is used to construct a numerical measure of the efficiency of community engagement. Possible applications of the new measure are then discussed. An illustration of the method by which the new efficiency measure is computed is given in an appendix.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Begon

, Harper

, & Townsend

. (1996). Ecology: Individuals, Populations, and Communities, 3rd edn. Oxford: Blackwell Science.

Boon

. (2012). Predicting elections: a 'Wisdom of Crowds' approach. International Journal of Market Research, 54, 4, pp. 465–183.

Buchanan

. (2007). The Social Atom. London: Marshall Cavendish Ltd.

Burton

. (2009). Conceptual, theoretical and practical issues in measuring the benefits of public participation. Evaluation: The International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, 15, 3, pp. 263–284.

Chao

, & Shen

T.-J.

(2010). Program SPADE (Species Prediction And Diversity Estimation). Available online at: http://chao.stat.nthu.edu.tw/softwareCE.html (accessed 10 February 2013).

Chao

, & Shen

T.-J.

(2012). User's Guide for Program SPADE (Species Prediction And Diversity Estimation). Available online at: http://chao.stat.nthu.edu.tw/SPADE_UserGuide.pdf (accessed 24 January 2013).

Chase

J.M.

, & Leibold

M.A.

(2003). Ecological Niches: Linking Classical and Contemporary Approaches. London: University of Chicago Press.

Citizens Advice – England and Wales (2012) Table 2: Advice issue statistics by second tier categories March 2012. Available online at: http://www.cablink.org.uk/advice_trends_q4_2011-12_appendix_3.xls (accessed 14 November 2012).

Clark

. (2009). Beyond neutral science. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 24, 1, pp. 8–15.

10.

Danoff-Burg

, & Chen

. (2005) Biodiversity calculator, in Danoff-Burg

J.A.

(ed.) Measuring Biological Diversity. Available online at: http://www.columbia.edu/itc/cerc/danoff-burg/MBD_Links.html (accessed 5 February 2013).

11.

Darwin

. (1976). The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. Everyman's University Library edition. London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd.

12.

French

, & Bayley

. (2011). Public participation: comparing approaches. Journal of Risk Research, 14, 2, pp. 241–257.

13.

Gotelli

N.J.

(2001). A Primer of Ecology, 3rd edn. Basingstoke: Macmillan.

14.

Harpole

. (2010). Neutral theory of species diversity. Nature Education Knowledge, 3, 10, pp. 60. Available online at: http://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/neutral-theory-of-species-diversity-13259703 (accessed 25 January 2013).

15.

Hubbell

. (2001). The Unified Neutral Theory of Biodiversity and Biogeography. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

16.

Hutcheson

. (1970). A test for comparing diversities based on the Shannon formula. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 29, 1, pp. 151–154.

17.

Ipswich Borough Council (2011) Area Forum minutes, 2010 and 2011. Available online at: http://www.ipswich.gov.uk/site/scripts/meetings_committees.php?headerID=4 (accessed 4 January 2013).

18.

Jost

. (2011) Introduction to diversity theory, in Chao

, & Jost

. (eds) Diversity Analysis: A Fresh Approach. London: Chapman & Hall/CRC.

19.

Levine

J.M.

, & HilleRisLambers

. (2009). The importance of niches for the maintenance of species diversity. Nature, 461, pp. 254–257.

20.

Levine

J.M.

, & HilleRisLambers

. (2010). The maintenance of species diversity. Nature Education Knowledge, 1, 10, p. 67. Available online at: http://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/the-maintenance-of-species-diversity-13240565 (accessed 23 February 2013).

21.

Limpert

, Stahel

, & Abbt

. (2001). Log-normal distributions across the sciences: keys and clues. BioScience, 51, 5, pp. 341–352.

22.

London Assembly Police and Crime Committee (2013) Agenda and draft minutes, Thursday 13 June 2013. Available online at: http://www.london.gov.uk/moderngov/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=240&MId=4984&Ver=4#sthash.F67eSdxB.dpuf (accessed 21 September 2015).

23.

MacArthur

, & Wilson

. (1967). The Theory of Island Biogeography. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

24.

Magurran

. (1988). Ecological Diversity and its Measurement. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

25.

May

. (2011). The paradox of accountability: moving away can bring you closer – a case study of police community engagement in London. International Journal of Market Research, 53, 4, pp. 455–462.

26.

May

, Crawley

, & Sugihara

. (2007) Communities: patterns, in May

R.M.

, & McLean

A.R.

(eds) Theoretical Ecology: Principles and Applications, 3rd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

27.

Mayo

. (2010). Viewpoint: the case for public service market research. International Journal of Market Research, 52, 6, pp. 711–713.

28.

McLeod

. (2012). Ownership and change - a case study of action research in Kenya. International Journal of Market Research, 54, 1, pp. 21–27.

29.

Pattie

, & Johnston

. (2012). The growing efficacy of telephone political canvassing at the 2005 and 2010 British general elections. International Journal of Market Research, 54, 1, pp. 49–70.

30.

Purdam

, & Crisp

. (2009). Measuring the impact of community engagement on policy making in the UK: a local case study. Journal of Civil Society, 5, 2, pp. 169–186.

31.

Rixon

. (2010). Stakeholder engagement in public service agencies: ascending the rungs of the accountability ladder. International Journal of Public Administration, 33, 7, pp. 347–356.

32.

Rowe

, & Frewer

. (2000). Public participation methods: a framework for evaluation. Science, Technology and Human Values, 25, 1, pp. 3–29.

33.

Rowe

, & Frewer

. (2005). A typology of public engagement mechanisms. Science, Technology & Human Values, 30, 2, pp. 251–290.

34.

Smith

. (2013). Using mobile devices to access the realities of youth: how identification with society influences political engagement. International Journal of Market Research, 55, 1, pp. 25–33.

35.

Stevenson

. (2011). Welcoming people with mental health problems into mainstream market research. International Journal of Market Research, 53, 6, pp. 737–748.

36.

Verberk

. (2012). Explaining general patterns in species abundance and distributions. Nature Education Knowledge, 3, 2, p. 5. Available online at: http://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/explaining-general-patterns-in-species-abundance-and-23162842 (accessed 23 February 2013).

Measuring the Efficiency of Community Engagement

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References