Abstracts Sociology

Collaborative identification of assets in South Rome, Georgia using the community capitals framework : exploring influential factors and discovering community strengths

by Ashley Elizabeth Anglin

Ph.D. University of Hawaii at Manoa 2014. The context of this mixed-methods study is South Rome, is a community within the city of Rome, Georgia in the northwest portion of the state that is currently undergoing a large-scale community revitalization process. With the goal of informing this initiative, the current study explored individual-and community-level assets and aspirations using the Community Capitals Framework (CCF), a conceptual framework from sociology used to better understand how communities work and thrive, through analyzing the skills, resources, and networks present in specific contexts. Participants completed community activity books and participated in community workshops. Results include perceived community strengths in natural and built capital, needs in political and human capital, and include a detailed account of participants' dreams and suggestions for the future of their community. Latent Class Analysis of indicators from the community activity books also uncovered four latent classes of community residents: New Minority Residents, Active Long-Term Residents, Less Active Long-Term Residents, and New Residents with Action Potential. These classes reveal the diversity of the community, highlighting the shared characteristics and experiences of certain residents. Specifically, findings demonstrate that community assets are not uniformly distributed or perceived in communities; location, perception, accessibility, and demographic characteristics influence the way that residents view the strengths and assets of their communities. Therefore, the results not only suggest that the CCF is a useful conceptual tool for determining the presence, location, and organization of community resources, but also for uncovering ways in which individual-level factors relate to the identification and accessibility of community-level resources and services.