A Mixed-Method Framework for Evaluating the Social Impact of Community Cooperation Projects in Developing Countries

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Hauptverfasser: Sampò, Giorgia, Giallorenzo, Saverio, Franceschi, Zelda Alice
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Sampò, Giorgia
Giallorenzo, Saverio
Franceschi, Zelda Alice
author_facet Sampò, Giorgia
Giallorenzo, Saverio
Franceschi, Zelda Alice
contents Why do some community-cooperation projects catalyse participation through durable, resilient collaboration networks while others result in negligible impact and leave the local social fabric unchanged? We argue outcomes hinge on participation architecture: simple, visible routines -- onboarding help, templated tasks, lightweight contribution/benefit tracking -- that create easy ``entry portals'' and route work across clusters without heavy hierarchy. We introduce Project Intervention Response Analysis (PIRA), a mixed anthropological-network-analysis framework that compares observed community networks with counterfactual networks absent from project-induced ties. PIRA also adds a new egocentric metric to detect ``architectural alters'' -- latent facilitators and boundary spanners. We begin validating PIRA in a three-month field study in Pomerini, Tanzania, where NGOs coordinated citizens, associations, and specialists. Findings indicate that sociotechnical participation architectures -- not charismatic hubs -- underwrite durable coordination. PIRA offers a reusable method to link organizational design mechanisms to formal network signatures.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_20009
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Mixed-Method Framework for Evaluating the Social Impact of Community Cooperation Projects in Developing Countries
Sampò, Giorgia
Giallorenzo, Saverio
Franceschi, Zelda Alice
Social and Information Networks
General Economics
Economics
Why do some community-cooperation projects catalyse participation through durable, resilient collaboration networks while others result in negligible impact and leave the local social fabric unchanged? We argue outcomes hinge on participation architecture: simple, visible routines -- onboarding help, templated tasks, lightweight contribution/benefit tracking -- that create easy ``entry portals'' and route work across clusters without heavy hierarchy. We introduce Project Intervention Response Analysis (PIRA), a mixed anthropological-network-analysis framework that compares observed community networks with counterfactual networks absent from project-induced ties. PIRA also adds a new egocentric metric to detect ``architectural alters'' -- latent facilitators and boundary spanners. We begin validating PIRA in a three-month field study in Pomerini, Tanzania, where NGOs coordinated citizens, associations, and specialists. Findings indicate that sociotechnical participation architectures -- not charismatic hubs -- underwrite durable coordination. PIRA offers a reusable method to link organizational design mechanisms to formal network signatures.
title A Mixed-Method Framework for Evaluating the Social Impact of Community Cooperation Projects in Developing Countries
topic Social and Information Networks
General Economics
Economics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.20009