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Making space for co‐produced research ‘impact’: learning from a participatory action research case study
Author(s) -
Darby Stella
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
area
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1475-4762
pISSN - 0004-0894
DOI - 10.1111/area.12321
Subject(s) - deliberation , participatory action research , transformative learning , negotiation , sociology , action research , citizen journalism , value (mathematics) , public relations , space (punctuation) , political science , politics , social science , pedagogy , anthropology , computer science , linguistics , philosophy , machine learning , law
There is growing emphasis in the UK on promoting research that creates a positive impact on society. Research Councils UK , the major national research funding agencies, have recently defined a framework for promoting and measuring this impact. This paper contributes to current debates about this developing agenda and, particularly, the problematic intersection of the impact agenda and co‐production research approaches. I argue that processes of negotiating values, aims and power relations are essential to creating relevant, ethical impacts with research participants. In contrast to the emphasis placed on linear and top‐down change by the impact agenda, my experience doing participatory action research with a UK community group shows that co‐produced research produces different kinds of impacts: co‐produced impacts are emergent and non‐linear; responsive and relational; and empowering when rooted in reciprocal collaboration with research partners. This paper questions the implicit values the impact framework imposes on academic researchers and community partners, calling for continued critical engagement with the impact agenda to encourage the value‐rational reflection, deliberation and collaboration needed for creating socially transformative research.

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