Community-Engaged Research

This powerful slogan popularized by the disability rights movement, has many applications today, including community-engaged research endeavors. It is an important reminder that in order for engagement to be truly meaningful, we must engage those most affected by research activities.

Communities, as defined by the Community Science Exchange Network, include  “people sharing a common identity, history and/or heritage; a group of people sharing a common, place-based challenge (e.g., localized pollution); people united by a common livelihood (e.g., a fishing community, a farming community); and/or people organizing around a common problem or goal.”

Engaging diverse community groups in research can be improved by involving people in all aspects of the research process, from scoping and identifying the key scientific questions, co-developing the methodology and analysis, and outlining how data will be shared. Establishing strong partnerships where community agency, autonomy, and self-determination are valued and centered are often critical to conducting research that has lasting impact. It is important to recognize that community groups hold intimate local and traditional knowledge of their own communities and environment. Your scientific knowledge and expertise can serve as an important complement to this local and traditional knowledge.

The Morgridge Center for Public Service, emphasizes these key characteristics of successful community-engaged research:

• Academic researchers work alongside community members, who are as involved in the project as they wish to be, which may mean simply informing the research question and dissemination, all the way to taking on the role of co-researchers.
• Relationships of academics with community partners are expected to be equitable, respectful, and mutually beneficial.
• Partnerships should provide outputs that are useful to the community, as well as outputs that are useful in the academy.
• Community wisdom is valued as a different form of knowledge alongside academic knowledge.

What are the benefits to community-engaged research?

• Builds Trust – Effectively and meaningfully engaging community throughout the entirety of the research project helps build trust in the scientific process and its outcomes.
• Contributes toward undoing historic harms – Throughout history, extractive research has caused significant harms to people and populations. Centering community priorities and questions and collaborating can serve as one step toward reparations.
• Advances the Wisconsin Idea – A principle that education and research should be used to improve the lives of people in Wisconsin and beyond.
• Ensures impact and elevates the validity of data – Involving community members can significantly increase the uptake of scientific findings, enhance understanding of research and promote a sense of ownership in the process.
• Centers real-world concerns with outcomes that are often immediately relevant – Since communities are key collaborators in community-engaged research, the outcomes are often immediately relevant and usable.

What are some key considerations before embarking on this type of endeavor?

• Takes time to build trust and maintain relationships – Deep, meaningful relationships cannot be built overnight. Sometimes months to years are required for trust to be earned.
• Requires cultural humility and willingness to learn about new cultures – Diversity makes our world stronger, more vibrant, and innovative. Collaborating with people from cultures different from our own takes time, open-mindedness, and humility.
• Timescales often differ – Community deadlines are often driven by action with or without available information. Deadlines attached to scientific research are often more flexible.
• Requires sensitivity to and awareness of one’s positionality – Power dynamics are always at play when collaborating with communities, especially people that belong to underserved or underrepresented groups.
• Science is often one piece of the puzzle for communities – Decisions at the local level are often driven by consensus and one of many factors when considering how to act on research outcomes.

 A Spectrum of Community-Engagement and Relationship-Building

There has been an evolution in higher education from service-oriented work toward deeper engagement with community. Service-oriented work is often accomplished through volunteerism, such as through a service-learning course. Outreach is often one-directional with academic work being done for the public, such as a talk given to a group at a community center. And Engagement is done with the public – it is inclusive and collaborative with shared authority for knowledge creation. This is often referred to as co-creation.*