Premium
An Approach to Scholarly Impact through Strategic Engagement in Community‐Based Research
Author(s) -
Speer Paul W.,
Christens Brian D.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.618
H-Index - 122
eISSN - 1540-4560
pISSN - 0022-4537
DOI - 10.1111/josi.12039
Subject(s) - community engagement , variety (cybernetics) , affect (linguistics) , community organization , psychology , power (physics) , social engagement , public relations , sociology , political science , computer science , social science , artificial intelligence , physics , communication , quantum mechanics
Community‐based research (CBR) has potential to enhance the impact of applied social science research. Yet, CBR encompasses an array of different forms of engagement with a variety of types of community partners. Herein, we describe an approach to CBR for increasing the likelihood of research impact on social issues. We call this approach strategic engagement. Strategic engagement can be understood as CBR that is conceptualized and conducted with attention to the role of power in community decision‐making. To ground the discussion, we draw on our experience of CBR with community organizing groups. Organizing groups have an overt goal of altering community conditions to improve social environments for residents and families. Furthermore, they are unambiguous about the need for the exercise of social power to affect change in these social conditions. Social research that is developed in conjunction with community organizing groups, defined by interests of community organizing groups, and utilized with an explicit focus on social power by community organizing groups has the potential for magnifying research impact.