Research on community development poses many challenges, as the outcomes of such research projects are not visible and they are difficult to measure. There is a dearth of scientific research studies in the area of community development through people’s participation. This book will serve as a reference book to all those engaged in practising and studying development of communities, as the content is designed keeping in view their requirement of studying communities. It combines both my experiences in conducting and guiding community-based development projects and research as well as some very relevant references from scholarly books and websites. Thus, it aims to provide a resource for the students, teachers and development practitioners, and to help them develop understanding the process of community research. However, this book is not intended to be the final word on community research as the subject is continuously expanding. The effort has been made to make the content of the book as up-to-date as possible and understandable for the beginners in this field. The book includes chapters on importance of community research, how to involve people in research and ways of identification of their needs and problems as well as how to plan for community research. It also includes a chapter on community research methods which discusses in detail qualitative and quantitative community research methods, participatory action research methods and how to encourage the participation of people in research. It also throws light on use of communication tools for encouraging participation of people. The methods of participatory monitoring and evaluation are also included in detail. At the end guidelines for writing a research report are also given.
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