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Aligning Community-Engaged Research Methods with Diverse Community Organizing Approaches

Author

Listed:
  • Chad Raphael

    (Department of Communication, Santa Clara University, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA 95053, USA)

  • Martha Matsuoka

    (Department of Urban and Environmental Policy, Occidental College, 1600 Campus Road, Los Angeles, CA 90041, USA)

Abstract

Community-Engaged Research (CER) often involves partnerships between academic or professional researchers and community organizers. Critical CER and organizing each aim to mobilize people and resources to produce actionable knowledge in order to build grassroots leadership and power that promote equity and justice for marginalized communities. This article argues that critical CER collaborations can benefit by carefully matching the choice of research methods with community partners’ organizing strategies to ensure that research aligns with and supports organizing goals. We aim to add to the CER literature a more specific rationale for why professional researchers should share control over the choice of research methods with community organizers, and more detailed guidance for how CER teams can select methods that best advance organizers’ goals. After summarizing the many ways in which collaborative research can support community organizing efforts, we argue that different CER methods align best with widely-used organizing approaches (including Alinskyite, Freirean, feminist, community building and resilience-based, and transformative approaches). We illustrate the discussion with examples of research conducted by and with organizations rooted in the environmental justice (EJ) movement, which prioritizes community organizing as a strategy and draws from multiple organizing traditions, including a case study of research techniques used by the Environmental Health Coalition, one of the oldest EJ groups in the U.S.

Suggested Citation

  • Chad Raphael & Martha Matsuoka, 2023. "Aligning Community-Engaged Research Methods with Diverse Community Organizing Approaches," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-19, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:12:y:2023:i:6:p:343-:d:1167537
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Corrie Grosse, 2019. "Climate Justice Movement Building: Values and Cultures of Creation in Santa Barbara, California," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-26, March.
    2. Schiffer, Eva, 2007. "The power mapping tool: A method for the empirical research of power relations," IFPRI discussion papers 703, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
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