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SUMMARY:Staying with the trouble: Reflections on participation\, power\, a
 nd messiness in community-engaged research
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260611T125000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260611T135500
DTSTAMP:20260610T012419Z
UID:0eb71510-d359-f111-a825-7c1e52046306
CREATED:20260527T135051Z
DESCRIPTION:Community-engaged research approaches aim to create environmen
 ts of shared authority among stakeholders\, encompassing the entire resear
 ch process. In doing so\, they seek to disrupt conventional notions of res
 earch by repositioning those traditionally framed as ‘participants’ as
  co-investigators and co-creators of knowledge. At the same time\, a growi
 ng body of scholarship cautions against the uncritical valorisation of the
 se approaches. Critics highlight the relative under-theorisation of power 
 relations between universities and communities\, and the risk of a ‘fals
 e egalitarianism’ that obscures rather than confronts existing inequalit
 ies. Further tensions arise from asymmetries in time\, resources\, and ins
 titutional incentives\, as well as from the persistence of models that pos
 ition communities as external to the university\, an orientation that may 
 reinforce\, rather than challenge\, the divide between academic and public
  knowledge.  \nThis presentation reflects on the messiness\, tensions\, an
 d possibilities of community-engaged research\, drawing on a collaborative
  doctoral project conducted in Makhanda\, South Africa. This research proj
 ect\, now in its final stages\, adopted an emergent and participatory appr
 oach to inquiry\, involving community members as co-researchers in shaping
  research questions\, methods\, and interpretations. \nRather than present
 ing participatory research as inherently equitable or straightforward\, I 
 foreground the uneven\, iterative\, and power-laden nature of collaboratio
 n\, examining how methodological decisions were continually reworked in re
 sponse to context\, relationships\, and participants’ preferences\, some
 times in ways that contradicted established participatory ‘best practice
 s.’ Ultimately\, I argue for an understanding of community-engaged resea
 rch as a negotiated and relational process\, whose value lies not only in 
 formal outputs but in its affective and relational processes of listening\
 , recognition\, and shared meaning-making. By making visible the tensions 
 and partialities of collaboration\, I seek to offer a grounded account of 
 what it means to conduct research through situated\, power-laden\, but und
 oubtedly generative relationships.
LAST-MODIFIED:20260527T135256Z
SPEAKER:Clare McCann
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