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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Now showing 1 - 10 of 10
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    Resource guide: Video collection of training in community-based research
    (UNESCO Chair, 2016) Jin, Jingsi; Tremblay, Crystal; Harris, Leila
    This resource guide provides a summary of videos on key topic areas related to teaching and training materials for Community Based Research from around the world. This guide is the outcome of research conducted by the UNESCO Chair in Community-based Research SSHRC funded project ‘NextGen’ between 2013-2016.
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    Mutual learning and empowering support: Networks and balance between local and global demands
    (GUNi, 2017-03) Tremblay, Crystal; Singh, Wafa; Lepore, Walter
    Community-University Engagement (CUE) net-works and research partnerships may be particularly useful for advancing sustainable social and ecological development as they can mobilize the knowledge, skills and assets of both Higher Education Institutions (HEls) and communities. In this chapter, we present a series of principles for stakeholder engagement and partnership at HEls, showcase key global CUE networks com-mitted to strengthening the civic roles and responsibility of HEls, and propose recommendations to help policymakers and practitioners use networks and partnerships as a practical tool to engage with global and local pressing problems. There is growing evidence that indicates a large aggregate trend to unite civil society, HEls and networks in common efforts to co-create knowledge, mobilize it to inform practice and policy, and enhance the social, economic and environ-mental conditions of people, communities, nations and the world.
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    Summary of impact: Community-engaged research at the university of victoria
    (University of Victoria, 2017) Tremblay, Crystal
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    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, Wafa
    The 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.
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    Perspectives on community practices: Living and learning in community
    (Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani, 2015) Krašovec, Sabina Jelenc; Štefanc, Damijan; Hall, Budd L; Tandon, Rajesh; Tremblay, Crystal; Singh, Wafa
    This book presents the findings of the 2015 European Society for Research on the Education of Adults conference and brings together a rich collection of research that explores how communities learn, organise, resist and transform across varied contexts. It covers themes such as adult learning and wellbeing, intergenerational spaces of experience, feminist work in public museums, learning cities and regions, community resilience, applied theatre and transformative learning, and the co-construction of knowledge in community–university partnerships. Contributions such as Adult Learning and Wellbeing: Between Body Politics and the Body Politic, Community Building as Forum and Arena, and Challenges in the Co-Construction of Knowledge foreground tensions between policy, participation, power and everyday practice. The strength of this book lies in its plurality. It holds together critical, empirical and practice-based insights, making it an important resource for understanding community learning in complex and changing times.
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    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, Wafa
    In 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.
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    Strengthening community university research partnerships: Global perspectives
    (University of Victoria and PRIA, 2015-08) Hall, Budd L; Tandon, Rajesh; Tremblay, Crystal
    Universities 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.
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    Global trends in support structures for community university research partnerships
    (UNESCO Chair, 2014-09) Tremblay, Crystal; Hall, Budd L; Tandon, Rajesh
    This report presents findings from a 2014 global survey on institutional structures behind Community University Research Partnerships (CURP), It was run under the UNESCO Chair in Community-Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education, with funding from IDRC. It draws on 336 responses from 53 countries, looking at how universities and civil society organisations set up and sustain partnership mechanisms, from centralised university centres to independent bodies like science shops. Institutionalisation looks patchy across the board. And there's a real gap between universities' talk of co-creating knowledge and what happens on the ground: community-originated research stays rare, and CSOs keep running into limited funding and little say in decisions. What respondents value most is trust and mutual respect, even as mismatched timelines and clashing institutional cultures keep getting in the way. Training and steady funding come up again and again in what people recommend going forward.

© 2026 UNESCO Chair- Knowledge Resource Centre.