Organizational Transformations in Community Design Centers: An Analysis through Giddens’ Theory of Structuration Framework

ABSTRACT

Through provision of design, planning and advocacy services, university-based community design centers have a long history of community service and engagement. Utilizing Giddens’ structuration framework and through a comparative case-study analysis, this study examined whether and how community design centers transform over time responding to the changes in social, political, professional and economic contexts. Administrative support, external funding environment, reputation gained by successful projects, changes in human capital, and the trends in the profession and the higher education surfaced as rule- and resource-related factors enabling or constraining organizational changes. The lessons learned from these centers, regarding multidisciplinary collaborations, capitalizing on intellectual resources, and filling in the existing community niches, have the potential to inform others on how to institutionalize and sustain university-community partnerships.

KEYWORDS:

• Community design
• community design centers
• theory of structuration
• organizational transformations
• university-community partnerships

Acknowledgments

This article is part of a doctoral dissertation carried out at Arizona State University under the supervision of Dr. Sherry Ahrentzen. The dissertation is partially funded by Arizona State University, Office of the Vice-President for Research and Economic Affairs, the Graduate Research Support Program, and Graduate Education. I thank Henry Sanoff and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive and insightful feedback on the earlier versions of this article.