BEYOND THE SCIENCE: DRIVING BROADER SOCIAL CHANGE IN COMMUNITY COLLABORATIONS

Community-engaged research – which centers relationships between communities and scientists in the research process – is becoming an increasingly recognized methodology in the geosciences. From the researcher’s standpoint, benefits of engaging with communities range from improvement of research design (e.g., increasing relevance of research questions; incorporating local knowledge and expertise into project design) to increased public support for environmental solutions (e.g., empowering communities to respond to local environmental issues; increasing public understanding of the scientific process and proposed solutions). Though community involvement with research projects is accepted to be beneficial by many, these partnerships can be difficult to implement and require active reflection throughout the research and decision-making processes.

Though it is common for scientists to consider the level and extent of community participation in research collaborations when engaging with communities, less focus is typically given to intentionally building collaborations in a way that disrupts power differentials to drive broader social change. Here, I present ways in which researchers can facilitate positive social change in the communities that they engage with. Reflecting on my ongoing collaborations with community partners in Andavadoaka, Madagascar, I outline specific cases in which power imbalances arose, dissect root causes of these power imbalances, and suggest strategies to mitigate ongoing and future power differentials. Though many of these reflections may be specific to the contexts of my own research and personal life, this presentation will contribute to a larger dialogue in which we critically examine what the responsibilities are – and perhaps, what they should be – for a scientist who participates in community-engaged research.