Sociology ETDs

Publication Date

8-6-1970

Abstract

This study is an analysis of the power wielding process in South Barelas, New Mexico. It also deals with methodological issues in the study of community power.

Research in community power is characterized by opposing assumptions concerning the methodological superiority of either the reputational or the decision making approach. This study utilizes both techniques.

Exploratory interviews provided a list of potential influential. Ten respondents were then asked to indicate those on the list they would enlist for help in a major community project. Subsequent interviews with resultant potential influential provided a power structure of 17 leaders. Refusal of respondents to rank order the influentials necessitated a qualitative ordering of leaders. Based on kind of leadership activity, influential were placed in the following categories: party “politicos,” agency sub-professionals, activists, and institutional leaders.

Issues affecting the entire subcommunity were the focus of the decision making approach. A series of concrete decisions provided a framework by means of which the activities of the reputational leaders were assessed. This analysis indicated that power in Barelas in channeled through specialized substructures in the community, with spheres of influence being defined by organizational orientations of leaders.

Because South Barelas is one of the top three areas of acute deprivation in Bernalillo County, a number of federally funded community action programs have been institutionalized. This community action complex proved to be crucial importance in the distribution of power in he community. Further examination of decision making events within the framework of Peter M. Blau’s model of mediating values in complex substructures revealed that power in Barelas is a dynamic process, characterized by leadership phasing.

Findings yielded by the reputational and decision making techniques were compatible and consistent with the literature of both approaches. Both methods provided static descriptions of community power. However, further analysis within a change oriented framework revealed a dialectical pattern of leadership succession.

Degree Name

Sociology

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

Sociology

First Committee Member (Chair)

Harold Charles Meier

Second Committee Member

Charles E. Woodhouse

Third Committee Member

Louis Alexander Bransford

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

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