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Activity Areas and Developmental Stages in Self-Help Groups

• Bauer, Rudolph
• Trojan, Alf
• Halves, Edith
• Wetendorf, Hans-Wilhelm

Abstract

This article reports on four and a half years of participant observation in two self-help associations, a Gray Panthers group and a Parents Circle of Young Drug Abusers. As the first step of our analysis, we developed a classification system for the activities of these groups (self-maintenance, mutual aid, socializing, voluntary work, and lobbying). This helped us to identify and characterize five developmental stages (solidarization, orientation, stabilization, differentiation, and institutionalization of one or more activity areas). We describe the development of the two groups and their transformation over time, suggest some hypotheses for further research, and discuss some implications of the results.

Journal

Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly

(1990)
vol19 no3 pages263-278

Categories

1. Nonprofit Service Sectors  
2. Self-help Organizations  

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