Abstract
From the post World War II period through to the present, scientific research and policy has increasingly reflected acceptance and implementation of a view that public interests are better served through public participation. Built on principles of democratic participation, community-based research (CBR) can produce new knowledge through the integration of knowledge of community members’ lived experience with the scientific and technical knowledge of academics. Although community-based research has experienced considerable recent attention as an approach to knowledge production, a specific focus on the participation of community members in decision-making or governance of CBR is sparse. To assist in understanding governance of CBR in Canada and the nature and extent of public participation, we conducted an interview-based qualitative study with 54 respondents. Arnstein’s (1969) theory of participation was used as the theoretical orientation. Respondents’ experiences showed their participation in governance was generally organised through four groups of factors that modified participation: pre-existing conditions, arrangements of governance, actions of academic actors, and actions of community actors. Although community members’ participation in governance was largely contingent on the arrangements, structures and actions controlled or formulated by academics, and despite their relatively limited access to and engagement with real decision-making power, in general community members’ participation was satisfactory to them. However, the highest level of participation that Arnstein envisaged was rarely attained. Awareness of theory and practice of participation in research decision-making can help research decision-makers put in place the conditions and means for realising democratic goals and knowledge co-production. 
 
 Keywords: governance, decision-making, community-based research, public participation, Arnstein
Highlights
Community-based research (CBR) is an approach to research which makes use of the knowledge of members of the public, referred to as community members
Fifty-five interviews were conducted with members of community and university research collaborations who had had firsthand experience of governance in community-based research. (One interview was discarded because data were not first-hand experiential data.) Forty of the participants were engaged in governance of community-based poverty, homelessness and food insecurity research
University respondents were employed as academics and research project coordinators
Summary
Community-based research (CBR) is an approach to research which makes use of the knowledge of members of the public, referred to as community members. 12), we came to define governance in the context of communitybased research as an organised process whereby members of defined communities, in collaboration with academic researchers, democratically participate in making decisions towards producing new knowledge from the context and experience of their lives. In the context of community-based research, which is understood as an approach or orientation to research in which people from universities and communities bring their different knowledge, experiences and skill sets, collective decision-making or governance takes place, with the goal being generation of new knowledge to address social and health problems (Green et al 1995; Israel et al 1998; Lantz et al 2006; Minkler & Wallerstein 2008). Definitions and principles of CBR clearly affirm that both community members and academics should participate in all aspects of the research (Cargo & Mercer 2008; Hall, Tremblay & Downing 2009; Ibáñez-Carrasco & Riaño-Alcalá 2011; Israel et al 1998, 2003; Mykhalovskiy & McCoy 2002; Williams et al 2005)
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