What is Equity-Oriented Collaborative Community-Based Research?

CCREC developed “Equity-Oriented Collaborative Community-Based Research” (EOCCBR) as an umbrella term for engaged methodologies that situate ethical concerns at the leading edge of knowledge production collaboration. EOCCBR involves community organizations and leaders, as well as policy makers, in substantive and ongoing ways throughout the research process.

In EOCCBR, university researchers and their community partners substantively collaborate to:

  • Name and contextualize the material problems that drive the research purposes and questions that need to be answered;
  • Undertake the research investigations and interpret the significance of the results for the community and policy change;
  • Disseminate the research findings for multiple audiences and advocate for warranted changes to address inequities.

Collaborative research is engaged scholarship in action. Partners respect and seek to learn from the knowledge and expertise of each member of the collective. Together, they might know better how to understand the complex problems facing our communities and how to design and implement research-based responses to those problems.

There are a variety of interdisciplinary methodologies that align with at least some aspects of CCREC’s understanding of EOCCBR, and each particular research literature in the various disciplines and fields tends to favor specific terminologies, such as:

  • Action Research
  • Participatory Action Research
  • Community-Based Research
  • Community-Based Participatory Research
  • Engaged Scholarship
  • Translational Research, and more

By emphasizing EOCCBR, CCREC aims to emphasize that ethics and equity are at the foundation; that collaboration must be respectful, guided by a common vision, and substantive throughout the research process; that community voices, knowledge, and questions are the basis of ethical partnerships; and, that knowledge and critical understanding must be mobilized to affect change and address the challenges in our economy, employment, education, food systems, environment, public health, and housing.