scholarly journals A Reflection on Community Research and Action as an Evolving Practice

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen B. Fawcett
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Community Development ◽  
Participatory Research ◽  
Community Psychology ◽  
Collaborative Research ◽  
Behavioral Science ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Community Research ◽  
Personal Reflection ◽  
Science Community

AbstractCommunity research and action is an evolving field of practice with multiple influences. Its varied ways of knowing and doing reflect recombined elements from different disciplines, including behavioral science, community psychology, public health, and community development. This article offers a personal reflection based on my evolving practice over nearly 50 years. The focus is on three types of influence: (a) engaging with different communities, fields, and networks (e.g., discovering shared values, diverse methods); (b) building methods and capabilities for the work (e.g., methods for participatory research, tools for capacity building); and (c) partnering for collaborative research and action, locally and globally. This story highlights the nature of the field’s evolution as an increasing variation in methods. Our evolving practice of community research and action—individually and collectively—emerges from the recombination of ideas and methods discovered through engagement in a wide variety of contexts.

Planning Future Joint Programs

1962 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-153
Author(s):  
John Ohly
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Community Development ◽  
Rural Development ◽  
Foreign Aid ◽  
Behavioral Science ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
The Social ◽  
Science Community ◽  
Development Workers

I have long felt a need to bring the behavioral science community much closer to our foreign aid program. Past associations have been far too limited. Personnel in the succession of foreign aid agencies, unlike the personnel in many other parts of government, have not generally understood the contributions which the social sciences might make to their programs. Congressmen, conjuring up images of men who spend their lives measuring prehistoric skulls, frowned on the use of foreign aid funds for the employment of anthropologists. In the context of foreign aid, the term "anthropologist" was almost a dirty word. The few behavioral scientists whom we employed were rarely identified in accordance with their basic disciplines; rather they were classified as rural development advisers, community development workers, and the like. As a result we forfeited the benefits of a body of knowledge and the help of skilled resources that we could ill afford to forego.

Beyond disciplinary boundaries: speaking back to critical knowledges, liberation, and community

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 448-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher C Sonn ◽  
Caterina Arcidiacono ◽  
Urmitapa Dutta ◽  
Peace Kiguwa ◽  
Bret Kloos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Community Psychology ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Community Research ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Teaching Programme ◽  
Disciplinary Boundaries ◽  
International Conference ◽  
Research And Teaching ◽  
Just Community

This article explores critical directions for forging new disciplinary traditions within community psychology, as discussed by a panel at the conclusion of the 6th International Conference on Community Psychology (ICCP 2016). The conference itself was constructed as an enactment of a decolonizing approach, looking at the entire globalized system from the African continent and centring knowledges produced by Africans and the diaspora. Several panellists were invited to offer their reflections on the emerging discussions, and absences or silences they observed at the conference, as well as how community research and action can develop a research and teaching programme that is liberatory. Panellists’ comments pointed to the importance of the decolonization project globally and the implications of decoloniality for community research and action. The challenge for community research and action is to build alliances and networks across space and time, and with various social movements. The discipline needs to centre and draw out the voices of those who have been excluded, to retrieve and reclaim ways of knowing, being, and doing because these are key to tackling the coloniality of power and to forging new ways of doing ethical and just community research and action.

Community Psychology Without Borders: Language Issues in Community Research

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Torres-Harding ◽  
M. Njoku ◽  
L. Jason ◽  
J. Goodkind ◽  
J. Yunyi Ren ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Psychology ◽  
Community Research ◽  
Language Issues

scholarly journals What makes a ‘successful’ collaborative research project between public health practitioners and academics? A mixed-methods review of funding applications submitted to a local intervention evaluation scheme

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter van der Graaf ◽  
Lindsay Blank ◽  
Eleanor Holding ◽  
Elizabeth Goyder
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Collaborative Research ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Public Health Practice ◽  
Rapid Review ◽  
Success Rates ◽  
Evaluation Scheme ◽  
Health Practitioners ◽  
Public Health Practitioners

Abstract Background The national Public Health Practice Evaluation Scheme (PHPES) is a response-mode funded evaluation programme operated by the National Institute for Health Research School for Public Health Research (NIHR SPHR). The scheme enables public health professionals to work in partnership with SPHR researchers to conduct rigorous evaluations of their interventions. Our evaluation reviewed the learning from the first five years of PHPES (2013–2017) and how this was used to implement a revised scheme within the School. Methods We conducted a rapid review of applications and reports from 81 PHPES projects and sampled eight projects (including unfunded) to interview one researcher and one practitioner involved in each sampled project (n = 16) in order to identify factors that influence success of applications and effective delivery and dissemination of evaluations. Findings from the review and interviews were tested in an online survey with practitioners (applicants), researchers (principal investigators [PIs]) and PHPES panel members (n = 19) to explore the relative importance of these factors. Findings from the survey were synthesised and discussed for implications at a national workshop with wider stakeholders, including public members (n = 20). Results Strengths: PHPES provides much needed resources for evaluation which often are not available locally, and produces useful evidence to understand where a programme is not delivering, which can be used to formatively develop interventions. Weaknesses: Objectives of PHPES were too narrowly focused on (cost-)effectiveness of interventions, while practitioners also valued implementation studies and process evaluations. Opportunities: PHPES provided opportunities for novel/promising but less developed ideas. More funded time to develop a protocol and ensure feasibility of the intervention prior to application could increase intervention delivery success rates. Threats: There can be tensions between researchers and practitioners, for example, on the need to show the 'success’ of the intervention, on the use of existing research evidence, and the importance of generalisability of findings and of generating peer-reviewed publications. Conclusions The success of collaborative research projects between public health practitioners (PHP) and researchers can be improved by funders being mindful of tensions related to (1) the scope of collaborations, (2) local versus national impact, and (3) increasing inequalities in access to funding. Our study and comparisons with related funding schemes demonstrate how these tensions can be successfully resolved.

scholarly journals Advancing precision public health using human genomics: examples from the field and future research opportunities

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan C. Roberts ◽  
Alison E. Fohner ◽  
Latrice Landry ◽  
Dana Lee Olstad ◽  
Amelia K. Smit ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Precision Medicine ◽  
Behavioral Science ◽  
Public Health Research ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Human Genomics ◽  
Precision Public Health ◽  
Genomics Research ◽  
Health Initiatives ◽  
Public Health Initiatives

AbstractPrecision public health is a relatively new field that integrates components of precision medicine, such as human genomics research, with public health concepts to help improve population health. Despite interest in advancing precision public health initiatives using human genomics research, current and future opportunities in this emerging field remain largely undescribed. To that end, we provide examples of promising opportunities and current applications of genomics research within precision public health and outline future directions within five major domains of public health: biostatistics, environmental health, epidemiology, health policy and health services, and social and behavioral science. To further extend applications of genomics within precision public health research, three key cross-cutting challenges will need to be addressed: developing policies that implement precision public health initiatives at multiple levels, improving data integration and developing more rigorous methodologies, and incorporating initiatives that address health equity. Realizing the potential to better integrate human genomics within precision public health will require transdisciplinary efforts that leverage the strengths of both precision medicine and public health.

scholarly journals The SMART Framework: Integration of Citizen Science, Community-Based Participatory Research, and Systems Science for Population Health Science in the Digital Age (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tarun Reddy Katapally
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Population Health ◽  
Citizen Science ◽  
Participatory Research ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Community Based Participatory Research ◽  
Health Science ◽  
Systems Science ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Science Community

UNSTRUCTURED Citizen science enables citizens to actively contribute to all aspects of the research process, from conceptualization and data collection, to knowledge translation and evaluation. Citizen science is gradually emerging as a pertinent approach in population health research. Given that citizen science has intrinsic links with community-based research, where participatory action drives the research agenda, these two approaches could be integrated to address complex population health issues. Community-based participatory research has a strong record of application across multiple disciplines and sectors to address health inequities. Citizen science can use the structure of community-based participatory research to take local approaches of problem solving to a global scale, because citizen science emerged through individual environmental activism that is not limited by geography. This synergy has significant implications for population health research if combined with systems science, which can offer theoretical and methodological strength to citizen science and community-based participatory research. Systems science applies a holistic perspective to understand the complex mechanisms underlying causal relationships within and between systems, as it goes beyond linear relationships by utilizing big data–driven advanced computational models. However, to truly integrate citizen science, community-based participatory research, and systems science, it is time to realize the power of ubiquitous digital tools, such as smartphones, for connecting us all and providing big data. Smartphones have the potential to not only create equity by providing a voice to disenfranchised citizens but smartphone-based apps also have the reach and power to source big data to inform policies. An imminent challenge in legitimizing citizen science is minimizing bias, which can be achieved by standardizing methods and enhancing data quality—a rigorous process that requires researchers to collaborate with citizen scientists utilizing the principles of community-based participatory research action. This study advances SMART, an evidence-based framework that integrates citizen science, community-based participatory research, and systems science through ubiquitous tools by addressing core challenges such as citizen engagement, data management, and internet inequity to legitimize this integration.

scholarly journals Highlighting the potential of peer-led workshops in training early career researchers for conducting research with Indigenous communities

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwyneth A. MacMillan ◽  
Marianne Falardeau ◽  
Catherine Girard ◽  
Sophie Dufour-Beauséjour ◽  
Justine Lacombe-Bergeron ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Collaborative Research ◽  
Cultural Awareness ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Early Career Researchers ◽  
Indigenous Representation ◽  
Indigenous Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Community Collaborative

For decades, Indigenous voices have called for research practices that are more collaborative and inclusive. At the same time, researchers are becoming aware of the importance of community-collaborative research. However, in Canada, many researchers receive little formal training on how to collaboratively conduct research with Indigenous communities. This is particularly problematic for early-career researchers (ECRs) whose fieldwork often involves interacting with communities. To address this lack of training, two peer-led workshops for Canadian ECRs were organized in 2016 and 2017 with the following objectives: (a) to cultivate awareness about Indigenous cultures, histories and languages; (b) to promote sharing of Indigenous and non-Indigenous ways of knowing; and (c) to foster approaches and explore tools for conducting community collaborative research. Here we present these peer-led Intercultural Indigenous Workshops and discuss workshop outcomes according to five themes: scope and interdisciplinarity, Indigenous representation, workshop environment, skillful moderation and workshop outcomes. We show that peer-led workshops are an effective way for ECRs to cultivate cultural awareness, learn about diverse ways of knowing, and share collaborative research tools and approaches. Developing this skill set is important for ECRs aiming to conduct community-collaborative research, however broader efforts are needed to shift toward more inclusive research paradigms in Canada.

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