Aligning Community-Engaged Research to Context

Details

• Personal Author:
  Andrade K ; Backus A ; Haapanen KA ; Lindsey M ; London JK ; Mack SM
• Description:
  Community-engaged research is understood as existing on a continuum from less to more community engagement, defined by participation and decision-making authority. It has been widely assumed that more is better than less engagement. However, we argue that what makes for good community engagement is not simply the extent but the fit or alignment between the intended approach and the various contexts shaping the research projects. This article draws on case studies from three Community Engagement Cores (CECs) of NIEHS-funded Environmental Health Science Core Centers (Harvard University, UC Davis and University of Arizona,) to illustrate the ways in which community engagement approaches have been fit to different contexts and the successes and challenges experienced in each case. We analyze the processes through which the CECs work with researchers and community leaders to develop place-based community engagement approaches and find that different strategies are called for to fit distinct contexts. We find that alignment of the scale and scope of the environmental health issue and related research project, the capacities and resources of the researchers and community leaders, and the influences of the sociopolitical environment are critical for understanding and designing effective and equitable engagement approaches. These cases demonstrate that the types and degrees of alignment in community-engaged research projects are dynamic and evolve over time. Based on this analysis, we recommend that CBPR scholars and practitioners select a range of project planning and management techniques for designing and implementing their collaborative research approaches and both expect and allow for the dynamic and changing nature of alignment. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Community Health Services Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Community Based Participatory Research Community-university Partnerships Community Based Community Health Environmental Health Environmental Health Science Environmental Justice Research Productivity
• ISSN:
  1660-4601
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Arizona ; California ; Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1 ; OSHA Region 4 ; OSHA Region 9 ; Tennessee
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  17
• Issue:
  4
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20058689
• Citation:
  Int J Environ Res Public Health 2020 Feb; 17(4):1187
• Contact Point Address:
  Jonathan K. London, UC Davis Department of Human Ecology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA
• Email:
  jklondon@ucdavis.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2020
• NORA Priority Area:
  Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
• Performing Organization:
  University of California - Davis
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20010930
• Source Full Name:
  International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• End Date:
  20270929
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:231b3259d85a37e69f677a3ab49327c2a1310b06dfb73925bda81d04e9c58a085563862c62fcc6453e210c5057e92720a230b5d96571026a46588d8293a186b4
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/221723/cdc_221723_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.51 MB ]