Uncharted Path from Clinic-Based to Community-Based Research

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.