Community Based Research: Selected Readings

A Select Bibliography of Readings on Community-Based Research

Curated by: Clayton Hurd, Director of Community Engaged Research, Stanford University 

Definitions and Promising Practices

• *Strand, K. et al. (2003). Principles of Best Practice for Community-Based Research. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning Spring 2003, pp. 5-15
• Community Based Research Collaborative (2021). IN IT TOGETHER: Community-Based Research Guidelines for Communities and Higher Education Salt Lake City: University of Utah.
• Cynthia Gordon da Cruz (2017) Critical Community-Engaged Scholarship: Communities and Universities Striving for Racial Justice, Peabody Journal of Education, 92:3, 363-384, DOI: 10.1080/0161956X.2017.1324661 
• Kindon, S., Pain, R., & Kesby, M. (Eds.). (2007). Participatory Action Research: Origins, approaches and methods. In Participatory Action Research Approaches and Methods: Connecting People, Participation and Place (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203933671 
• Riccio, R., Berkey, B., and Mecagni, G. (2022). Principles of Anti-Oppressive Community Engagement for Educators and Researchers [white paper] Northeastern University.
• *The Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center (2022). Community-Based Participatory Research Principles. 
• *Fine M, Torre ME, Oswald AG, Avory S. (2021). Critical participatory action research: Methods and praxis for intersectional knowledge production. J Couns Psychol. 2021 Apr;68(3):344-356. doi: 10.1037/cou0000445. PMID: 34043378.

Research Validity and Bias in CBR

• *Warren, M. R., Calderón, J., Kupscznk, L. A., Squires, G., & Su, C. (2018). Is collaborative, community-engaged scholarship more rigorous than traditional scholarship? On advocacy, bias, and social science research. Urban Education, 53(4), 445–472. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085918763511 
• Balazs, C. L., & Morello-Frosch, R. (2013). The three Rs: How community-based participatory research strengthens the rigor, relevance, and reach of science. Environmental Justice, 6(1), 9–16. https://doi.org/10.1089/env.2012.0017 
• Calhoun, Craig. “Foreword.” In Engaging Contradictions: Theory, Politics, and Methods of Activist Scholarship, edited by CHARLES R. HALE, 1st ed., xiii–xxvi. University of California Press, 2008. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1pncnt.5 
• Massey, S.G. @ Barreras, R.E. (2013). Int

Addressing damaging (colonial) legacies of higher education institutions’ research in/on communities:

• Bailey, M., Bailey, V., Green, K., & Johnson, J. M. (2015). “Dismantling The Ivory Tower: A How-To Guide for POC Charting New Strategies for Social Justice Organizing“. Detroit, MI: Allied Media Conference.
• *Chicago Beyond (2019). Why Am I Always Being Researched? A Guidebook for Community Organizations, Researchers, and Funders to Help Us Get from Insufficient Understanding to More Authentic Truth. Chicago Beyond Equity Series, Volume 1, Read pp. 1 - 26.
• *Hall, Budd L. and Rajesh Tandon (2017). Decolonization of Knowledge, Epistemicide, Participatory Research and Higher Education, Research for All, 1(1), 6-19.
• Tuck, E. (2009). Suspending damage: A letter to communities. Harvard Educational Review, 79(3), 409–427. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.79.3.n0016675661t3n15 
• *Tuck, E. and K.W. Yang. 
  • (2014b). ‘R-Words: Refusing Research’ in D. Paris and M. T. Winn (Eds.) Humanizing Research: Decolonizing Qualitative Inquiry with Youth and Communities. Thousand Oakes, CA: Sage Publications.
  • Tuck., E. & Yang, K.W. (2013). Uncollapsing ethics: Racialized scientism, settler colonialism, and an ethical framework for decolonial participatory action research.

Positionality and Power in CBR

• Collins, P. H. (1986). Learning from the Outsider Within: The Sociological Significance of Black Feminist Thought. Social Problems, 33(6), S14–S32. https://doi.org/10.2307/800672
• Smith, L. T. (2012). Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and indigenous people. London: Zed Books (chapter 2) 
• O'Brien, Deni, Kysa Nygreen, and Jen Sandler (2022), Theorizing Relationships in Critical Community Engaged Research: Justice-Oriented Collaborations as Resistance to Neoliberalism. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, Volume 26, Number 3, p. 149,
• Jennifer Nutton, Nancy Lucero & Nicole Ives (2020) Relationality as a response to challenges of participatory action research in indigenous contexts: reflections from the field, Educational Action Research, 28:1, 100-111, DOI: 10.1080/09650792.2019.1699132’

Skills/Competencies of Community Engaged Researchers

• Campus Compact Credentialing Program (2021). Key Competencies in Engaged Research. 

Asset-Based Community Development and CBR

• Kretzman, J. and McKnight, J. (1993). Building communities from the inside out: A path toward finding and mobilizing a community’s assets. Chicago, Illinois: ACTA Publications
• Case studies: 
  • Dyrness, Andrea (2008). “Research for change versus research as change: Lessons from a mujerista participatory research team.” Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 39(1), 23–44
  • Roe, K., Minkler, M., and Saunders, F. (1995). “Combining research, advocacy, and education: The methods of the grandparent caregiver study.” Health Education Quarterly, 22(4): 458-475.

Research dissemination and community capacity building

• Shirk, J. L., H. L. Ballard, C. C. Wilderman, T. Phillips, A. Wiggins, R. Jordan, E. McCallie, M.Minarchek, B. V. Lewenstein, M. E. Krasny, and R. Bonney (2012).  Public participation in scientific research: a framework for deliberate design. Ecology and Society 17(2): 29. http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-04705-170229
• Roe, K., Minkler, M., and Saunders, F. (1995). “Combining research, advocacy, and education: The methods of the grandparent caregiver study.” Health Education Quarterly, 22(4): 458-475.
• McDavitt B, Bogart LM, Mutchler MG, Wagner GJ, Green HD Jr, Lawrence SJ, et al. (2016) Dissemination as Dialogue: Building Trust and Sharing Research Findings Through Community Engagement. Prev Chronic Dis 13:150473. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5888/pcd13.150473
• Recommended Resource:  Community Alliance for Research and Engagement [CARE] (n.d.). Beyond Scientific Publication: Strategies for Disseminating Research Findings. New Haven, CT: Yale Center for Clinical Investigation.

Anti-Racist CBR

• Alliance for Research in Chicagoland Communities (ARCC). Anti-Racist Community-Academic Research: Reflective Practice Tool for Community-Academic Researchers and Partnerships
• Collaboratory for Health Justice (2020). Anti-Racist Community Engagement Principles. 
• Conducting Research Through an Anti-Racism Lens. University of Minnesota. 
• Grimes, S., Nesbit, M.N., Oppenheim, G., and Rasmussen, N. (2021). Moving Towards Anti-Racist Community Engagement in Conservation and Land-Use Programming