Working on the sustainability of local communities with a “community-engaged” research methodology

Abstract

The Globalism Institute at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University in Melbourne is conducting research on local responses to globalisation across 10 local communities in seven different countries. The project's “community-engaged research methodology” was developed first in the Hamilton region in southwest Victoria, where staff from the university have been working in community partnerships for nearly 20 years. This research methodology differs from action research in that it sustains a clear distinction between the knowledge and skills of “outside” researchers and the hard-won local knowledge of community members. It is based on respectful dialogue and a clear commitment to maintain relationships for a matter of years rather than weeks. It involves the creation of “spaces for engagement” that can lead to multiple, sometimes unexpected, outcomes. It integrates a range of research methods (including surveys, story collection, strategic conversations, photo-narrative techniques, and research journals) that generate rich data to be used (subject to consent) by both community-based and university-based researchers. The research methods are linked to forms of analysis that relate local experiences to broader social processes. Community-engaged research takes time and patience but it can ensure good feedback and support mechanisms, good-quality data, locally relevant research outcomes and a process that can be convivial for all involved.

Notes

1. Neighbourhood Renewal is an initiative of the Victorian Department of Human Services, and the programme manager for Broadmeadows is Rosalind Vincent.

2. The project that began as a visit by 22 international students in 1994 grew into a project that had a budget of around $5 million Australian dollars and involved 35 local schools, over 20 community organisations, the local Shire Council and more than 35 members of university staff. As a result of this success a local benefactor and the Victorian state government eventually provided funding for a “flexible learning” and regional research centre in Hamilton associated with RMIT University.

3. Ernest Boyer (1990) proposed four necessary and inter-related forms of scholarship: the scholarships of discovery, integration, application and teaching. Together they have become known as the “scholarship of engagement” and this has inspired a wide range of community service activities by Australian universities.

4. See <http://www.usask.ca/cuisr/cuexpo/>.