IDENTIFYING

COMMUNITY
POWER ACTORS
 Four Methods of
Community Power
Structure
1. Positional Method
- This involves making and updating a list of
power actors in positions of authority in local
government and in leading economic ,
cultural, religious, and voluntary
organizations.
 Steps involved in positional
method:
1.Determining relevant positions in the
community.
2.Collecting incumbents’ names.
3.Receiving and updating the list.
2. Reputational Method
-This involves the selection of many
knowledgeable community citizens who can
provide a list of power actors.The identified
power actors would then be ranked according
to their reputation in influencing community
affairs.
Steps in reputational
method:
a. Making a list of knowledgeable community citizens.
b.Developing interview questions and a pilot test.
c. Interviewing knowledgeable community citizens.
d.Deciding the criteria on who among the citizens in the list can
be part of the community power actor pool( such as knowing
how many times a certain power actor actor has been
mentioned by one or more knowledgeable community citizens)
e. Repeating the process regularly .
 3. Decision-making Method
-This involves tracing the history of a
collective decision concerning at least
one issue area.
 Steps involve in the decision-
making Method
a.Selecting representative community decision to focus.
b.Including relevant decision areas
c. Creating a documents review guide
d.Developing interview questions and a pilot test.
e. Conducting documents review and interviewing
kwowledgeable community citizens.
d.Developing interview questions and a pilot test.
e.Conducting documents review and interviewing
kwowledgeable community citizens.
f. Tracing the decision-making process
g. Determining leaders in decisions
h. Reviewing new community decisions of interest.
 4. Social Participation Method
◦-This involves developing a list of
leaders and active participants in
committee works in key community
voluntary associations.
Steps involved in the social
participation method:
a.Selecting key community voluntary associations
b.Obtaining a list of association participants
c.Comparing and determining overlaps in officership
and committee work
d.Assigning a scoring system of social participation
e.Listing power actors with the highest degree of social
participation
f. Updating regularly