Democracy Matters - Episode 5: Don't Cook Tonight!

by Carah Ong Whaley

SUMMARY: Communities around the world are demanding full participation in every step of the research process, from identifying the issues to be looked at, to prioritizing them, to developing the research design, to creating the instruments used to collect the data, to being involved in the analysis of the data and in the development of policy prescriptions. As a result, increasingly university-based researchers are finding that a collaborative or participatory approach in which they co-investigating with the people most deeply impacted by a policy or issue is the only way they can proceed to do their work. Otherwise they can’t get the cooperation of the people who are the source of the most important knowledge and insights. Dr. Kenneth Reardon, Professor of Urban Planning in the School for the Environment and Director of Urban Planning and Community Development at University of Massachusetts Boston talks about advancing student civic learning, conducting community-based research, fostering reciprocal partnerships, building institutional commitments to engagement, and enhancing higher education’s contributions to the public good. He also talks about his work with the Blue Hair Brigade on the East St. Louis Action Research Project, which is the subject of his new book, Building Bridges: Community and University Partnerships in East St. Louis.