Knowledge Democracy / Participatory Research
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://192.9.200.215:4000/handle/123456789/123
Welcome to the Knowledge Democracy / Participatory Research Community. This community serves as a comprehensive repository of resources on participatory approaches, community-based research, and collaborative inquiry methods. Our mission is to foster knowledge sharing and support initiatives that empower communities to contribute to research, ensuring their voices shape the knowledge that impacts their lives.
Explore a wealth of materials, including case studies, policy papers, training guides, and research publications that highlight the practice and principles of participatory research worldwide.
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Item Mobilisation des connaissances de la communauté et du milieu universitaire en vue d’un changement en profondeur : L’évolution de la Chaire UNESCO sur la recherche communautaire et la responsabilité sociale en enseignement supérieur | Mobilizing community and university knowledge for transformative change: The evolution of the UNESCO Chair in community-based research and social responsibility in higher education(Commission canadienne pour l’UNESCO, 2017) Hall, Budd L; Tandon, RajeshLa Chaire UNESCO sur la recherche communautaire et la responsabilité sociale en enseignement supérieur a été créée en juin 2012 dans la foulée de la 2e Conférence mondiale de l’UNESCO sur l’enseignement supérieur, qui s’est déroulée à Paris en juillet 2009. Rajesh Tandon, Ph. D. et Budd Hall, Ph. D., ont été nommés cotitulaires de cette chaire. Cet article retrace les origines de la chaire et examine les contributions apportées jusqu’à ce jour ainsi que les leçons stratégiques que l’UNESCO, les décideurs politiques, les praticiens et les universitaires peuvent en tirer.Item Strengthening community university research partnerships: A global study of effective institutional arrangements for the facilitation and support of research partnership between community groups and universities.(UVic & PRIA, 2015-07) Tremblay, Crystal; Hall, Budd L; Tandon, Rajesh; Singh, WafaThe practices of community-based research (CBR) and all of its variations have developed and evolved over the past 35 years. With roots in the Global South the practices have spread throughout the international development community and supporting bodies such as IDRC. Over the past 15 years, CBR has been ‘discovered’ in the Global North as the Carnegie and WK Kellogg Foundations, the European Union, the Research Councils of the UK and Canada and the AUCC have been promoting research partnerships as key engagement strategies for higher education. A variety of institutional structures are being created to facilitate authentic and respectful research partnerships. Community-University research partnerships are therefore no longer a South or a North issue, but are an evolving global field of action with several global networks supporting them, including the Canadian-based Global Alliance for Community Engaged Research (GACER). Our ability to benefit from the promises of drawing the resources of universities further into the solution of community problems on their terms depends in part on our answers to several questions: 1. What are the institutional arrangements and processes that show the most promise in facilitating effective, respectful and impactful community university research partnerships? 2. What are the institutional policies needed to mainstream CBR? What are the most promising policies that national governments and funding bodies could implement to improve the quality of CBR and create effective structures and processes? To answer these questions we have carried out five steps: A global survey, case studies, systematisation process, knowledge dissemination and policy dialogues. The deliverables will include recommendations for the future development of the field shared on virtual platforms of the UNESCO Chair and through regional policy dialogues, development of targeted policy briefs, a practical e-handbook on best practices and an e-book on the theory and practices of facilitating community university partnerships. This final report provides an overview of progress and project activities, research outcomes and knowledge mobilization efforts and highlights the main research findings from a global survey (phase I) and country case studies (phase II). We have completed all research activities and are currently in the process of finalizing the open source e-book highlighting the main research findings and a practical handbook. The case studies illustrate how country policies on community-university partnerships are being institutionalized and practiced at the level of Higher Education Institutions and Civil Society Organizations.Item Community-university engagement in a time of COVID-19(2020) Tandon, Rajesh; Hall, Budd LDr Budd Hall and Dr Rajesh Tandon reflect on how COVID-19 is reshaping community-university engagement, collapsing the physical boundary between town and gown as students and academics work from home. The pandemic has exposed a stark digital divide, with universities in high-income countries far better placed to sustain online teaching than those in low-income countries. One familiar approach treats science and academic expertise as the sole authority in a crisis. Another approach is gaining ground through the pandemic instead, one that brings local knowledge, citizen science and community wisdom into direct partnership with formal research, so findings reach the public faster than conventional academic channels allow. The paper suggests this shift tests whether higher education is genuinely committed to its communities or only performing engagement. It closes with practical directions for the future, from redesigning curricula around field study to reviewing knowledge systems through an ecology of epistemologies.Item International collaboration for changing the culture of research: The UNESCO Chair in community-based research and social responsibility in higher education(Autonomie Locali e Servizi Sociali, 2020-04-01) Hall, Budd L; Tandon, RajeshThis paper traces the development of the UNESCO Chair in Community-Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education, established through the long-standing collaboration of Budd Hall and Rajesh Tandon. It explains how the Chair promotes community-based participatory research by strengthening partnerships between universities, civil society organizations, and local communities across the Global South and the excluded North. This work includes global studies, open-access publications, international networks, and the K4C Consortium. Engaged research also supports the SDGs by fostering knowledge co-creation and socially responsible, locally grounded higher education. The paper argues that transforming research culture demands collaboration, knowledge democracy, and closer academia-community links to tackle social and environmental challenges.Item Bridging knowledge cultures: A guide for community practitioners and community organizations(UNESCO Chair, 2024) Lepore, Walter; Hall, Budd L; Tandon, RajeshThis guide by Walter Lepore, Budd Hall and Rajesh Tandon is about helping community practitioners and organisations build stronger research partnerships with universities. It draws on the larger Bridging Knowledge Cultures project, which studied ten K4C hubs across Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Colombia and Canada. The book explores partnerships in areas such as fishing communities, maternal health care, waste management, and early childhood education. Community knowledge is rooted in lived experience and oral tradition, while academic knowledge is typically validated through peer review and disciplinary standards, a gap that often leaves community knowledge undervalued within formal academic settings. It closes with practical recommendations for practitioners facilitating collaboration between communities and universities, pointing to trust, mutual respect, and the recognition of practices like storytelling as legitimate forms of knowledgeItem Community engagement in higher education institutions: Status report 2015(UNESCO Chair, 2015-04) Tandon, Rajesh; Singh, WafaItem Strengthening community university research partnerships: A global study of effective institutional arrangements for the facilitation and support of research partnership between community and universities.(UVic & PRIA, 2014-09) Tremblay, Crystal; Hall, Budd L; Tandon, RajeshItem Challenges in the co-construction of knowledge: A global study on strengthening structures for community university research partnerships(0000) Hall, Budd L; Tandon, Rajesh; Tremblay, Crystal; Singh, WafaIn this paper, Budd Hall, Rajesh Tandon, Crystal Tremblay and Wafa Singh present a global study on structures that support community-university research partnerships. The study draws on an international survey and national case studies from twelve countries, examining how universities institutionalise community engagement and where this engagement connects with actual research practice. The authors turn to the discourse of knowledge democracy, arguing that community-based research offers a way to address long-standing inequities in whose knowledge counts within the academy. Survey findings point to a gap between universities' stated commitment to co-constructing knowledge and the reality that very few research projects originate from communities themselves. The paper reviews facilitative structures across universities in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, India and elsewhere, and considers the role of national networks and policies in strengthening these partnerships. It closes with recommendations for national policy, higher education institutions, and community and civil society organisations.Item Strengthening community university research partnerships: Global perspectives(University of Victoria and PRIA, 2015-08) Hall, Budd L; Tandon, Rajesh; Tremblay, CrystalUniversities everywhere are being called to engage more closely with the communities around them. This book looks at what that actually means in practice. Bringing together perspectives from fifty countries and case studies from twelve, it explores how reciprocal research partnerships are built, supported, and sustained. The chapters show both the opportunities and the tensions of collaboration, and suggest how such partnerships can strengthen knowledge democracy while reshaping the role of higher education. By tracing patterns across regions, the book highlights the policies and structures that make engagement possible, while also pointing to the deeper cultural shifts that such collaboration demands.Item Knowledge and engagement: Building capacity for the next generation of community based researchers(Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 2016-10) Tandon, Rajesh; Hall, Budd L; Lepore, Walter; Singh, WafaKnowledge and Engagement summarizes the main findings of a global study titled ‘Building the Next Generation of Community-Based Researchers’ (a.k.a. the Next Gen project) undertaken between May 2014 and April 2016, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). The overall objective of the Next Gen project was to increase access to high quality training in Community Based Research (CBR) within higher education institutions (HEIs) and civil society organizations (CSOs). The research aimed to understand the current state-of-the-art in pedagogies and strategies for building CBR capacities, and to work towards the strengthening of existing training fieldwork and the theoretical and curricular content on participatory research within and outside academia. The book opens with a theoretical chapter on pedagogical principles about training, teaching and learning CBR, which have been elaborated by triangulating three data sources: systematic literature reviews, a global survey, and case studies on CBR training. It advances the discussion on capacity building for CBR because, while large amounts of literature abound on doing CBR, very little is available on training for CBR. The results of the first-ever global survey on training modalities, materials and locations for CBR are presented in Chapter 3. It confirms, among other things, that the demand for training in CBR far exceeds the supply of training opportunities. Twenty-one case studies (of nine HEIs and 12 CSOs from 14 countries) with lessons form Chapter 4, followed by a comparative analysis of the case studies using the pedagogical principles of training, teaching and learning CBR as an analytical framework. A detailed summary of the project’s findings, conclusions and recommendations round off the book, with appendices containing the guidelines for conducting thematic reviews, the survey questions, a list of institutions providing top training programs in CBR, and the case study framework. Knowledge and Engagement represents a collective effort to highlight many issues and areas of work in CBR training, analyzes the current scenario and opportunities, and provides recommendations on what can be done to provide best quality training for the next generation of community based researchers.
