Abstract Summary
As urban landscapes grapple with deep rooted disparities, universities worldwide aim for making a true 'impact.' Now, more than ever, the public call for academics is to seek active societal relevance. Yet, universities as institutions historically have been a place for a social elite that researches ‘the world out there’ in an attempt to capture an objective social reality. Doing so, the traditional academic regime does not recognize the relevance of the value laden and the subjective. Even well intended research projects, where marginalized communities are the subject of study, issues of exploitation and research fatigue are often the case. This way, the city and its communities remain a subject of study and analysis, and the effect of research only finds its way into academic publications, education and policy recommendations that instigate changes after years, if it even does at all. In this study, we take a step forward in a transdisciplinary paradigm wherein we argue for a 'university of the city' by engaging in Community Based Research (CBR). CBR is more than a method; it is an 'orientation to inquiry' (Boyd, 2020). This approach requires moving away from subject focused and value free research towards value based (= context) research, by acknowledging it as a strength rather than a weakness of the research project. In this way, we aim to further research for, by and, with ‘the community’ to become part of the urban fabric and work on the basis of a reciprocal relationship. But what are experiences to develop CBR, grounded in values such as reciprocity? What infrastructure is needed to develop this kind of research? These questions touch on a multitude of ethical, practical and bureaucratic difficulties (finance, data, power). By conducting a literature review, benchmark and interviews with CBR projects in Europe and the Netherlands, we present a set of core principles (e.g. equity, reciprocity, continuity) that reflect fundamental values of what it means to engage in this transdisciplinary form of research. In our CBR program we worked with various pilots in Rotterdam, to see how CBR becomes a practice between residents, researchers and societal organizations. Therein, we monitor and critically reflect upon: 1) values of community based research, 2) the networks of relations between local residents and (social) entrepreneurs, community cooperatives and academics, 3) the operational ‘artefacts’ (time, money, locations). We coin these three aspects as the infrastructure of community based research, which allows for substantiating the concept of ‘knowledge democracy’ wherein a multiplicity of epistemologies and ways of knowing beyond traditional Western standards are recognized, and experiential, embodied, and expert knowledge find their way into (academic) research. Central here is the ownership of knowledge, and justice, in the process of producing and using knowledge.
