What is community-based research?

Community-based research (CBR) involves research done by community groups with or without the involvement of a university. In relation with the university, CBR is a collaborative enterprise between academics and community members. CBR seeks to democratize knowledge creation by validating multiple sources of knowledge and promoting the use of multiple methods of discovery and dissemination. The goal of CBR is social action (broadly defined) for the purpose of achieving (directly or indirectly) healthy and sustainable communities (adapted from Kerry Strand et al, 2003). At the University of Victoria, community-based research refers to a wide variety of practices and is supported by several academic traditions:

• academic or scientific knowledge put at the service of community needs
• joint university and community partnerships that identify research problems and develop methods and applications
• research generated in community settings without formal academic links
• academic research under the full leadership and control of community or non-university groups
• joint research conceived as part of organizing, mobilizing or social advocacy or action

Community-based research most often includes approaches such as collaborative research, partnership research, action learning, participatory research, participatory action research, and community-based participatory research. Much feminist, queer, anti-racist, urban and rural planning research draws on similar principles of engagement. Aboriginal scholars point to the importance of relationships and the acceptance of many ways of knowing as necessary steps before thinking about "research."