Negotiating Power Imbalances in Community-Engaged Research

Session Submission Type: Workshop

Description

Who holds power when research is done with communities rather than on them? Community-engaged research—an approach that involves community partners as collaborators in shaping questions, methods, and outcomes—promises more grounded, ethical, and impactful scholarship. But sharing power in research is not a single decision; it is an ongoing practice. From agenda-setting to compensation to dissemination, it requires deliberate choices at every stage. This workshop focuses on what those choices look like in practice.

By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:
- Analyze how power operates across the research process within community-engaged research;
- Design strategies to share and negotiate power in research relationships, including compensation, decision-making, and data ownership; and
- Commit to at least one concrete change that makes their own research more authentically collaborative.

The workshop, designed collaboratively by the ASA Community for Community-Engaged Scholarship & Teaching, opens with a concise orientation to core principles of community-engaged research, creating shared ground for participants with varied levels of experience. We then will consider how power operates throughout the research process and where tensions commonly emerge, even in thoughtful and well-designed projects.

Participants will engage with one another on practical questions researchers regularly face: When and how should participants be compensated? How can partnerships avoid becoming transactional? What does it look like to share decision-making authority over research questions, data, interpretation, and dissemination? How do researchers navigate IRB requirements and institutional expectations while respecting community expertise and priorities?

In keeping with the principles of community-engaged research, the workshop itself will be run as a participatory session. Attendees will act as research participants, contributing their experiences, questions, and challenges through guided activities, small-group discussions, and collective reflection, leaving with sharpened questions and actionable strategies they can apply to their own work.

Sub Unit

• Workshops / Policy and Research Workshop

Presenters

• Nancy Plankey-Videla, Texas A&M University-College Station

• Rebecca D. Christensen, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

• Carol L. Glasser, Minnesota State University-Mankato

Session Organizer

• Shelly Steward, The Workers Lab