Community-university Research Partnerships Research Articles

Colonial Continuities in Closure: Indigenous Mine Labour and the Canadian state

AbstractThe benefits of employment in resource extraction figure prominently in state rationales for resource extraction. However, in Canada, the site of study, while the worker is a key figure in rationales for extraction, this same worker disappears in state attention to extractive/mine closure. The paper's focus on Indigenous mining labour is driven by a community–university research partnership with Dene communities in the Northwest Territories facing forthcoming closure of diamond mines on their land. Approaching mine closure as a juncture that can both reproduce or resist the settler extractive economy, we argue that the Canadian state responses to the labour implications of mine closure, and its lack of coherence, express the settler‐colonial tension between the reproduction of the (Canadian) settler state and its requisite labour force, and the social reproduction of Indigenous communities.

Care through closure: mine transitions in the mixed economy of the Northwest Territories, Canada

This article, emerging from a community-university research partnership, examines community concerns around diamond mine closure in the Northwest Territories, Canada, and Dene visions of post-extractive futures. The Northwest Territories is a region of the sub-arctic characterized by a political economy that combines settler and Indigenous modes of governance, production, and social reproduction, with an outsized settler engagement in resource extraction. In this article, we turn our attention to the under-examined social processes of mine closure in this region. In taking a feminist political economy approach to mine closure, we attend to the multiple labours of the northern mixed economy. We aim to unsettle the settler preoccupation with the mine itself, and rather, to centre the social reproduction of mining affected communities. Responding to calls for greater attention to the social aspects of mine closure, this paper brings together feminist imaginaries of care and reproduction with place-based insights regarding the gender of settler colonialism and Indigenous women’s transgressive caring labours in northern Canada. It draws upon community-based interviews and talking circles, analyzing mine closure as both a site of ongoing settler colonial dispossession and as a space of resistance to ongoing colonialism through the assertion of Dene modes of life.

Avoiding Risk, Protecting the “Vulnerable”: A Story of Performative Ethics and Community Research Relationships

In February 2019, OUTSaskatoon, a 2SLGBTQ+ resource centre in Saskatoon, SK, received 1.1 M in federal funds to support a five-year project set to intervene in the instances and societal perpetuation of gender-based violence toward the 2SLGBTQ+ community. The project involved partnerships between OUTSaskatoon and the University of Saskatchewan, including a comprehensive research and evaluation stream to accompany the delivery of front-line services and educational activities. During the project’s application to the University’s Research Ethics Board (REB), members of the ethics review committee expressed heightened levels of fear and discomfort not only with the subject-matter, but with the role (and centrality) of the community organization within the research process. The documented experience explores pressing barriers to effective and ethical community-university research partnerships. To this end, the authors explore their communications with the REB alongside the themes of “vulnerability,” “risk-aversion,” and more broadly regarding the timelines of community work versus university processes. Together these themes maintain a culture of academic exceptionalism that causes significant barriers to the development of reciprocal partnerships between community partners and universities. In this case, the outcome was hopeful, as a formal complaint to the REB received a documented apology. In documenting this specific, though not unique, experience, we aim to highlight the possibilities for leaning in and building ethical space between and through community and academic environments to foreground both needed critique and collaborative pathways forward.

Family Matters: Navigating the Intentional Precarity of Racialized Migrant and Refugee Workers in Canadian Meatpacking

In Canada, the meatpacking industry relies heavily on a workforce comprised of racialized migrants and immigrants, many of whom are former refugees. In the spring of 2020, the industry saw devastating COVID-19 outbreaks leading to hundreds of infections, numerous fatalities and plant closures in Southern Alberta. Based on findings from a community-university research partnership, the intersections of immigration status and the conditions of work faced by im/migrant-refugee workers are analyzed in the Alberta meatpacking industry. Drawing on 225 survey responses and 17 qualitative interviews with im/migrant and refugee workers, the concept of ‘intentional precarity’ is advanced to explore the strategies that the industry uses to maintain a docile workforce. This paper makes three contributions. First, we present original accounts of the 2020 COVID-19 outbreaks in Canadian meatpacking from the perspective of im/migrant workers; second, we demonstrate that im/migrant workers are not just autonomous labourers, but rather people embedded in caring and kin networks that are both local and transnational; and third, we unpack the fraught relationship between im/migrant workers, their families and the dirty, difficult, dangerous (3D) – and, during COVID-19, deadly – work environments. We argue that families act as a buffer against 3D work by offering protection and assistance in times of crisis, such as the COVID-19 outbreaks in slaughterhouses. Yet, obligations to support family are also often the primary reason for workers to take jobs in meatpacking in the first place.

A Realist Approach to Analysis in a Participatory Research Project.

Realist reviews have shown the effectiveness of participatory action research but the realist approach has not been used in combination with a participatory approach in qualitative data analysis. To study the links between preexisting conditions in neighborhoods and the kind of actions taken at the community level during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic in Toronto, a community-university research partnership used a critical realist approach to analyze qualitative interviews with grassroots leaders. This article describes the procedures developed to enable participation of the full community- academic team in the analysis. One analyst coded paragraphs in all 46 interviews for preexisting conditions (contexts), actions taken (intervention components), the often implicit factors that underpinned the actions (mechanisms), and observed results (outcomes) as stated by the interviewees. Each interview was summarized in terms of the contexts (C), actions (I), mechanisms (M) and outcomes (O) identified and one to seven midrange CIMO hypotheses were developed for each interview. A second level of analysis involved sense-making workshops with the community partner and a cross-section of interviewees using the CIMO statements. This article describes the realist approach to analysis and the changes that were made to enable a mixed team of community leaders and academics to generate overall statements of impact. This is a novel approach to qualitative data analysis, with a range of implications for the use of this technique in participatory research.

Facilitating Co-Creation of Knowledge in Two Community-University Research Partnerships

Community-university research partnerships (CURPs) can be mutually beneficial but not all manage to co-create knowledge. Though much has been written on conditions for and obstacles to success, less is known about specific factors that may help. This paper adds to emerging literature on this issue by examining how two CURPs, using different community-based research approaches in divergent contexts, found ways to address challenges and co-create knowledge. The Canadian partnership sought to foster knowledge sharing on parenting children with disabilities among researchers, practitioners, community groups and members. The rural Kenyan CURP tested usefulness of a traditional gathering space for fostering intergenerational “sex-talk”, hoping to enhance communication between community stakeholders and make accessing health services more acceptable. After presenting main features of both, we identify factors that helped each succeed in its unique context then explore factors that cut across the two. Three common facilitating factors emerged: early and ongoing partner involvement, presence of a safe climate, and knowledge translation for diverse users. Two of these have received scant attention to date, suggesting some implications for practice. As we cannot assume community partners feel safe sharing, researchers need to identify potential barriers and design strategies to reduce them. We also need to explore, document, and share innovative ways to make knowledge accessible for diverse users. Finally, as flexibility and creativity were key to success of both CURPs, these aspects should be emphasized in teaching community researchers. Further work could document innovations and evaluate their effectiveness in helping co-creation of knowledge happen.

Co-researching complexities: Learning strategies for edge walking in community–university research partnerships

Community–university research partnerships (CURPs) comprise a diverse group of stakeholders who share differing capabilities and diverse insights into the same issues, and they are widely regarded as valuable to navigate the best course of action. Partnering as co-researchers is core to nurturing these partnerships, but it requires careful navigation of complexities. The different insider and outsider positionalities occupied by co-researchers highlight experiences of ‘walking on the edges’ of each other’s worlds. This not only challenges these collaborations, but also enables a depth of understanding that may not be achieved in CURPs where the luxury of, or effort in, building a team of co-researchers to collect, analyse and write up data is not present. This article focuses on learning strategies to advance the co-researching capacities of CURPs where stakeholders occupy divergent positions. The focus will be on lessons from a co-researching partnership comprising a university-affiliated academic researcher, a local Kenyan non-governmental organization (NGO) and members of a community in which the NGO worked. We argue that applying selected learning strategies may facilitate positive experiences of edge walking and enhance the meaningful two-way sharing required for cross-cultural CURPs. It is recommended that community and university research partners examine the utility of these learning strategies for strengthening co-researching in CURP contexts.

Stakeholder Preferences for Process and Outcomes in Community-University Research Partnerships: Implications for Research Collaborations

Researchers in numerous fields assert that research partnerships involving academics and nonacademics are essential for developing solutions to pressing and complex problems. While theoretically justified and urgently needed, working across institutional and epistemological boundaries to produce knowledge and create solutions turns out to be complex and challenging. Given the potential and often realized challenges of collaborations, and the need for partners to come together to develop workable solutions, additional research is needed on process in research collaborations. With this paper, we contribute to the literature on process and outcomes in the development of community-university research teams. Specifically, we study local government officials’ (LGOs) process and outcome preferences for engaging in community-university research partnerships and their perceptions of academic researchers. Our data were generated from open-ended responses to a statewide survey of LGOs in Maine, United States, during the scoping phase of a large-scale sustainability-focused research initiative. Our findings revealed that respondents’ process preferences were influenced by such considerations as partners’ willingness to codesign the partnership and the attendant research, and by having a shared understanding of partner needs and responsibilities. Stakeholders’ outcome preferences were influenced by their perceptions of the type and relevance of the outcomes to all involved parties. We conclude with a discussion of how to use this data to initiate research partnerships and facilitate inclusive partnership processes. Being mindful of partners’ process and outcomes preferences in research collaborations and being aware of the perceptions that partners bring to the table are important for achieving solutions that are inclusive, thoughtful, and ethical.

The Knowledge for Change Consortium: a decolonising approach to international collaboration in capacity-building in community-based participatory research

ABSTRACT Two questions guide this work: (1) How can academics and community-based knowledge workers contribute to the achievement of the UN SDGs through the co-creation of knowledge that is locally contextualised and globally significant? (2) What are the practical challenges of creating university-community research and training partnerships aimed at developing research skills and capacities that will help address the UN SDGs through participatory approaches to knowledge creation? We answer these questions by analysing the Knowledge for Change (K4C) Consortium on training community-based participatory research. We present lessons and challenges associated to the development of K4C and provide recommendations to help create effective community-university research partnerships that contribute to the attainment of the UN 2030 Agenda.

Human Trafficking in Northeastern Ontario: Collaborative Responses

Human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation is undoubtedly occurring in Northeastern Ontario. However, there is a lack of information, resources, coordination, and collaboration on the issue in comparison to Southern Ontario. Furthermore, urban-based programming from “down south” does not necessarily fit the unique circumstances of Northeastern Ontario: specifically, the isolation and underservicing of rural and remote communities, the presence of francophone communities, and diverse Indigenous communities. The Northeastern Ontario Research Alliance on Human Trafficking is a community-university research partnership that takes a critical anti-human-trafficking approach. We combine Indigenous and feminist methodologies with participatory action research. In this paper, we first present findings from our eight participatory action research workshops with persons with lived experience and service providers in the region, where participants identified the needs of trafficked women and gaps and barriers to service provision. Second, in response to participants’ calls for collaboration, we have developed a Service Mapping Toolkit that is grounded in Indigenous cultural practices and teachings, where applicable, and in the agency and self-determination of persons experiencing violence, exploitation, or abuse in the sex trade. We conclude by recommending seven principles for building collaborative networks aimed at addressing violence in the sex trade. The Service Mapping Toolkit and collaborative principles may assist other rural or northern communities across the county.

O3 Breakfast After the Bell: Does the Program Exceed Student Need?

Background Breakfast After the Bell (BATB) has become the unofficial standard in school breakfast, particularly in larger, urban districts. However, there is sometimes concern that students eat at home or buy food before school, therefore eating breakfast twice. Additionally, student perceptions of BATB, its benefits and challenges, remain largely unstudied. Objective To understand if students are eating multiple breakfasts when BATB is served, and to measure students’ opinions of BATB. Study Design, Setting, Participants Middle school (MS) students from a low-income urban school district that operates under the Community Eligibility Provision took a paper-and-pencil survey during homeroom. This MS had switched from BATB back to breakfast before the bell midway through the schoolyear (n = 1149). District breakfast participation data were also collected and analyzed. Measurable Outcome/Analysis Participants answered questions regarding their perceptions of school breakfast. Participants were also asked their opinions of the traditional model of serving breakfast before the bell compared to BATB. District breakfast participation data and descriptive statistics are presented. Results The majority of students reported a positive impression of BATB, specifically that they feel better when they eat breakfast (69%); eating school breakfast saves time at home in the morning (56%); and school breakfast saves their family money (53%). In addition, they stated they were more likely to eat breakfast when it was served in the classroom (55%). Importantly, the vast majority of students said that they never, or only sometimes, buy breakfast on the way to school (92%), and only 18% reported that they always eat at home. District breakfast participation data show a significant decrease in breakfast participation after the switch to breakfast before the bell. Conclusion Overall, students reported many benefits of the BATB model. For most students, BATB was the only breakfast they report eating, which should remove the double-breakfast concern for school administrators. Returning to BATB would likely increase breakfast participation in the MS. Funding Rutgers University Community-University Research Partnership Grant.

It’s Symbiotic: Exploring the Facilitators and Outcomes of a Successful Community-University Research Partnership

This study examines a community–university partnership formed as part of a funded research project. Using case study methodologies, the authors explored the characteristics and facilitators of a community–university partnership from the perspective of community partners. Partners participated in semi-structured interviews about their perceptions of the nature of the partnership, and historical documents and partnership archives were analyzed. Results indicate that the success of the partnership has been most facilitated by the creation of shared space, and by the strategic alignment of goals and roles within that space. These findings provide guidance to scholars and community research teams in developing community–university partnerships. Future research should test the utility of the constructs presented here for improving partnerships across other types of organizations and communities and utilize cross-case comparisons to account for the central role of context.

Negotiating tensions in a community engaged and intersectionality-informed political science course

ABSTRACTThere is growing pressure on Canadian universities to demonstrate their applicability and relevance in contemporary society. Community engaged learning opportunities can respond to this pressure, and can provide important benefits for both students and community partners with whom students work. In this paper, I draw on my experiences of teaching an undergraduate and graduate community engaged political science course over the last four years, to reflect on three particular tensions I have negotiated in the course’s design and delivery, including: (a) teaching about socially engaged research and/or teaching about theories of citizen participation; (b) balancing student learning and community benefit; and (c) negotiating the rigidity of academic institutions. I explore these tensions while thinking about my concurrent commitment to an intersectional political science pedagogy [Rasmussen, Amy Cabrera. 2014. “Reflection: Toward an Intersectional Political Science Pedagogy.” Journal of Political Science Education 10: 102–116], and by drawing on Bivens, Haffenden and Hall’s [2015. “Knowledge, Higher Education, and the Institutionalization of Community-University Research Partnerships.” In Strengthening Community University Research Partnerships: Global Perspectives, edited by Budd Hall, Rajesh Tandon, and Crystal Tremblay, 5–30. Victoria: University of Victoria] proposed framework for institutionalizing community-university partnerships in post-secondary institutions, and feedback from students and partners. Ultimately, I suggest that community-engaged courses, despite the noted tensions, offer important and un-realized potential to political science curricula.

Hall, B.; Tandon, R. i Tremblay, C. (Eds.), (2015). Strengthening Community University Research Partnerships: Global Perspectives Victoria, BC: University of Victoria. 306 pp.

Hall, B.; Tandon, R. i Tremblay, C. (Eds.), (2015). Strengthening Community University Research Partnerships: Global Perspectives Victoria, BC: University of Victoria. 306 pp.

Hall, B.; Tandon, R. i Tremblay, C. (Eds.), (2015). Strengthening Community University Research Partnerships: Global Perspectives Victoria, BC: University of Victoria. 306 pp.

Hall, B.; Tandon, R. i Tremblay, C. (Eds.), (2015). Strengthening Community University Research Partnerships: Global Perspectives Victoria, BC: University of Victoria. 306 pp.

Serving the People in Long Beach, California: Advancing Justice for Southeast Asian Youth through Community University Research Partnerships

Khmer Girl’s in Action is a nonprofit that successfully utilizes community-based participatory research (CBPR) with university partners to create social change for youth in Long Beach, CA. Based on semi-structured interviews and content analysis of news articles, I explore the impact and sustainability of this research work and the research partnerships. Findings highlight impacts such as youth empowerment, heightened awareness around community needs, policy change, and CBPR curriculum improvements in the field as impacts. Sustainability requires integrating research into program funding, utilizing a tailored training curriculum, building on community members prior relationships, and selecting partners that share common goals, levels of commitment, and flexibility. As funders demand more data to justify community needs, understanding more examples of such work in the Asian American community will be useful for informing future partnerships.

Studying the Human Health and Ecological Impacts of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Disaster (Part 2): Introduction to This Special Issue of New Solutions.

This introduction to the special issue continues an examination of the Gulf Coast Health Alliance: Health Risks Related to the Macondo Spill (GC-HARMS) project that began in New Solutions 28:3. GC-HARMS was part of a National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences-funded Gulf-wide consortium that created regional community-university research partnerships addressing health impacts from the oil spill exposures. Findings from this program enhanced regional preparedness and reinforced existing disaster-response networks. This special issue of New Solutions includes an article exploring the outcomes and implications of using a community-based participatory research-citizen science approach in implementing the project's exposure assessment/population health study and another article that describes analytic processes used to characterize toxicity of petrogenic Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons which provided data used to develop the project's risk message. Finally, this issue includes three Movement Voices interviews from individuals and nonprofits that served as GC-HARMS community hubs during the project.

Studying the Human Health and Ecological Impacts of the Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill Disaster: Introduction to This Special Issue of New Solutions.

Gulf Coast Health Alliance: Health Risks Related to the Macondo Spill (GC-HARMS) began in 2011 as a component project of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences' (NIEHS) Deep Water Horizon (DWH) Research Consortia program. This Gulf-wide consortium created regional community-university research partnerships focused on addressing health impacts resulting from oil spill exposures. Findings from this trans-National Institutes of Health program have helped enhance and refine community disaster preparedness and reinforced local-regional disaster response networks. Focal points of individual projects included the following: effects of multiple stressors on individuals and vulnerable populations, exposure to contaminants associated with crude oil, and mental health impacts. This introduction to New Solutions Special Issue on the GC-HARMS response to the DWH disaster presents an overview of the project's internal structure and relationship to the comprehensive NIEHS consortia response and lists articles and interviews featured currently with brief mention of additional articles slated for the next issue.

Doing Indigenous Community-University Research Partnerships: A Cautionary Tale

With the intention of generating critical discussion, in this paper the authors examine the complexities of doing decolonizing research within colonial institutions. Drawing on their experiences as co-investigators on a large scale partnership grant involving Indigenous and non-Indigenous partners doing community-based research in Indigenous communities, they tell a cautionary tale about confronting and working through the challenges. Specifically addressing communication, decision-making, internalized colonialism and research relationships, the authors conclude that while these kinds of partnership grants involve struggle, in the end the effort is necessary.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL HERITAGE AS A CATALYST FOR PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT, RURAL REJUVENATION, AND RETHINKING OUR SHARED PAST: PERSPECTIVES FROM A QUARTER CENTURY OF COMMUNITY ARCHAEOLOGY IN NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR

A pesquisa arqueológica na província mais oriental do Canadá se beneficiou de uma longa e expansível história de parcerias com as comunidades. Tal deve-se, em parte, ao mandato excepcional da Memorial University, assim como ao engajamento forte do departamento de arqueologia em trabalhar com indivíduos e organizações locais durante escavações. A partir de três casos de estudos da província de Terra Nova e Labrador, este artigo revela as motivações, as experiências, os desafios, como os resultados que podem surgir das parcerias comunidade-universidade, e atesta do potencial da arqueologia em contribuir localmente de forma vantajosamente.