The Uncharted Path from Clinic-based to Community-based Research

Book excerpt: Community-based health-related research requires a reciprocal relationship between researchers and communities that differs from the relationships established in clinic-based health-related research. In the former not only is there a direct relationship with the individual (as there is in clinic-based research), but an equally important-and constantly changing-relationship with the community. Also, in community-based research, relationships change from that, in which individuals are 'subjects' of research, to the same individuals as 'participants' or 'partners' in the research process.These academic-community relationships are especially complex because frequently the community does not speak with a single voice and may have multiple different constituencies and perspectives. In addition, research teams comprised of several disciplines may be perceived as coming from unique 'academic communities', which of themselves may have different ways of envisioning community-based research. There is a recent call for more 'transciplinary' research, and yet there are limited empirical studies available which critically examine how disciplines work separately and in tangent to affect community-based research. This book will be used both by researchers and by those teaching upper-graduate level and graduate level health education.