ABSTRACT
While formally and informally recognized as being central to community action, the research and theoretical literature provide little insight into the processes behind the emergence of community power. When power is explored, it is usually presented in a macro context where a culmination of numerous efforts results in a critical stage leading to a more equitable distribution of power. Far less often is the micro level considered. At the latter level, power is often given only a passing reference as an expected outcome of local empowerment, civic engagement, and capacity-building activities. Generally, it is implied that power naturally emerges from the presence of the latter conditions. An explanation of the processes, mechanisms, and conditions in which community power emerges or fails to emerge remains unstated. To facilitate such an understanding, we seeks to: (1) Explore the ways in which power is conceptualized at the micro level as a component of community development and social change; and (2) provide a theoretical framework, based on afield theoretical perspective, for understanding the processes by which local citizens gain entree to power, as welt as interact with elites that might otherwise limit the emergence of local capacity. Implications for future theoretical development are then offered.
