Research as community-building: Perspectives on the scholarship of engagement

Abstract

If research were a form of community-building, what would it be? This article addresses this question, as well as some of the personal, professional and institutional issues that it raises for me, as a community worker and university professor. It draws upon a program in a metropolitan area that is simultaneously segregated and diverse, and examines ways of defining the problem, gathering the information and using the results – all the while working with community partners, without whom the work would not be.Keywords: Research, community-building, university-community collaboration