The Use of Interorganizational Network Analysis as a Tool for Evaluating Community-Based Coalitions and Partnerships

Abstract

This dissertation presents a brief history of community-based interventions to improve health, the assumptions when working at the community level health, and a review of notable community-based interventions. When using community health development as a tool for organizing communities to build capacity, a primary focus is on building relationships. What occurs more often now than 30 years ago, is the evaluation of community-based interventions and partnerships. Common measures among partnership evaluation are participation, commitment, and leadership. This dissertation analyzes the use of social network analysis techniques to evaluate interorganizational relationships among community partnerships or coalitions. The first paper presents the results of a systematic review of the use of network analysis in evaluating community-based partnerships and coalitions. The second paper illustrates the use of network analysis in the evaluation of a community-based health partnership in a rural region of Central Texas. Finally, the third paper builds on partnership and coalition evaluation of relationships using an advanced network analysis technique, multiplexity, to analyze how the combinations of relationship types changed over time.