It’s a sprint, not a marathon: a case for building short-term partnerships for community-based participatory research

Lucero Radonic, Cara Jacob, Rowenn Kalman, E. Yvonne Lewis

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

Academic calendars and university timelines set an urgent pace for researchers, which can hinder the establishment of long-term community partnerships. Given community-based participatory research’s (CBPR) emphasis on community-led research, time constraints can inhibit academic researchers’ commitments to collaborative methodologies and participatory research. This article considers how CBPR can be adapted for shorter-term engagements while still producing mutually beneficial research. In doing so, we contribute to the existing corpus on rapid assessment methodologies, characterized for adopting methods traditionally practiced over a longer duration to shorter time frames. We review the successes and limitations of a CBPR project executed within the timespan of six months in Flint, Michigan. In the case discussed, photo-voice enabled the inclusion of diverse ways of knowing, horizontal partnerships, reciprocal learning, and an accessible disemmination format within a CBPR framework. In conclusion we assert that there is value in short-term CBPR, especially for emergent issues where there is a need for rapid, responsive methodologies. However, short-term CBPR is a sprint, rather than a marathon; although shorter in duration, it is more intensive. It requires significant methodological commitments, flexibility, and an intensified workload for those involved.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)380-398
Number of pages19
JournalQualitative Research
Volume23
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 2023
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • CBPR
  • community-based participatory research
  • feminist pedagogy
  • Flint
  • knowledge co-production
  • participation
  • participatory pedagogy
  • photovoice
  • water

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
  • History and Philosophy of Science

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