Collaboration of Community and University Scholars: Training in the Transformation of Research for Community Development

Abstract

Community-based Participatory Research (CBPR) provides a methodology that creates mutually beneficial and equitable partnerships between researchers and community people involved in positive change. Participatory Action Research (PAR) is rooted in trust, connectivity, and reciprocity to address issues and actions that remedy inequitable social, economic, and environmental problems arising from racism rooted in structural/political imbalances. In this paper, we discuss the Health Equity Alliance of Tallahassee (HEAT) and its affiliated six week Ethnographic Field School that trains graduate students in CBPR methodology by bringing faculty, local community activists and stakeholders, and students together for mutual learning in dynamic classroom, community, and social settings. The paper offers reflections on the experience by a student, HEAT activist, local and visiting faculty, and demonstrate how a model field school based on PAR offers an empirical approach to building capacity to address power inequities in local settings and beyond.

A Conceptualization of the Urban Food-Energy-Water Nexus Sustainability Paradigm: Modeling From Theory to Practice

“…One of the most encouraging trends is that the evolution and transition of the integrated urban agriculture food and nutrition system is rooted in community based action organizations and initiatives responsive to various socioeconomic drivers and impacts: i.e., urbanization; under-/over-nutrition; environmental justice; climate justice; health disparities; income and employment; and food-access especially amongst minority and low-wealth populations (Gragg et al, 1997(Gragg et al, , 2002Sobal et al, 1998;Gee and Payne-Sturges, 2004;Hicken et al, 2011;White and Hamm, 2014;Posts and Campbell, 2017). Furthermore, these urban agricultural food system drivers are fostering collaborative, functional and transformative responses in the contexts of institutional interplay; co-management, boundary or bridging organizations and social entrepreneurship amongst stakeholders at various socioeconomic and intra-urban and peri-urban scales and levels (Lee et al, 2006;Sekovski et al, 2012;Gragg et al, 2015;Jessee et al, 2015). Results include but are not limited to: food-networks (Arndt et al, 2009;Allen, 2010;Koopmans et al, 2017); community-food gardens and farms (Lovell, 2010;Hirsch et al, 2016); urban agriculture and food systems planning; local, regional, national and global food systems; food-policy councils; treating the city as if it were an ecosystem in the urban planning and design process; "bioreactorbased, distributed manufacturing systems to close the urban, water, food, waste and energy loops, that fit seamlessly into the urban environment" (Coelho and Ruth, 2006;Ericksen, 2008;Padoch et al, 2008;Sterman, 2011;Armendáriz et al, 2016); rooftop gardening; indoor vertical commercial farming; food systems architecture; design; and tech innovation with many opportunities for enhancing food and nutritional securityand increasing productivity and down-stream, value-chain entrepreneurial opportunities-particularly with more efficient use of technology the interconnectivity of the cloud, ubiquitous cell phone coverage, uberization of goods and service-from mechanization, to urban cloud-kitchens to customer delivery (Lovell, 2010;Knizhnik, 2012;Fung and Jim, 2017) for the evolving integrated urban regional food and ...…”

“…Beyond its nutritional value, food can frame "multilayered challenges" in urban environments while providing an integrative foundation for diverse stakeholders to collaboratively address social, environmental and economic problems in the creation of just and sustainable cities (Dubbeling and Merzthal, 2006;Gottlieb and Joshi, 2010;Alkon and Agyeman, 2011;Koopmans et al, 2017). Community-based participatory urban food initiatives and research create jobs, stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship, reduce food expenditures, improves access to fresh and healthy food; mitigate "food deserts" and health disparities along with environmental and climate justice impacts; and promote physical activity associated with food production as well as collaboration of community and academic scholars and subject matter experts (Gragg et al, 2015;Usher, 2015;Koopmans et al, 2017). These multi-cross scale and level interactions enhance social and cultural identities and interactions further enriching local communities and their social capital.…”

“…methods and practices, research and community engagement (Gragg et al, 2015;Jessee et al, 2015). Figure 5A examines three causal chain and loop scenarios to further explain the complexity and differences of the driver response variables and their cross-scale interactions in the unconnected, connected, and nested sustainability scenarios.…”

Collaboration as Process: The Making of a Partnership to Serve At‐Risk Youths of Haitian Descent

“…Collaborative partnership in research takes a variety of forms, engaging a wide range of stakeholders (Besteman 2010;Doughty 2005;Ferguson 1997;Gupta and Ferguson 1997;Schensul, Berg, and Williamson 2008;Gragg et al 2015). Partnerships that involve professional researchers, public institutions, and community-based organizations constitute an emerging form of collective action that attempts to address social challenges, such as those associated with adolescent offenders involved in the justice system.…”

Rural Community Engagement for Health Disparities Research: The Unique Role of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)

“…This framework has been implemented in health disparities research projects with rural populations. For example, Glover & Xirasagar et al (2009) [ 13 ] incorporate a CBPR approach into the training of health professionals in an HBCU located in North Carolina, and Gragg and Mitchell et al (2015) [ 17 ] describe findings from a CBPR-based program focused on enhancing health equity in local communities in a Southern state. Given the dedication to social justice and community engagement that often characterizes HBCUs, university-community partnerships based on the CBPR framework are especially likely to be impactful.…”