Skip to main content

Leveling the Playing Field for Community Stakeholders: Examining Practices to Improve Engagement and Address Power Dynamics

  • 292 Accesses

Abstract

Non-scientist community stakeholders (“community stakeholders”) are an integral part of the translational research process. The knowledge they possess illuminates the social, political, economic, and cultural contexts from which participants and collaborators are drawn. In particular, the complex interaction of environment and history and their influence on the attitudes and perceptions of underrepresented populations should be understood, valued, and articulated in order to establish a meaningful relationship for all parties. However, this can only happen when those engaged in the research process understand and utilize effective strategies for community engagement and the management of power dynamics. In this chapter we explore approaches for expanding community engagement, including several strategies that use critical race theory as a framework for improving the equitable distribution of decision-making power. We also provide authentic reflections by members from each of our community-facing advisory boards, the Integrating Underrepresented Populations in Research Steering Committee and the Stakeholder Expert Panel, to highlight the community stakeholder perspective on the research process from inception to dissemination of results.

Keywords

  • Equitable distribution of decision-making power
  • Community stakeholder perspective
  • Community research advisory boards
  • Linguistic capital

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   44.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Ahmed SM, Palermo A-GS (2010) Community engagement in research: frameworks for education and peer review. Am J Public Health 100(8):1380–1387. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2009.178137

    CrossRef  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Wallerstein N, Duran B, Oetzel JG, Minkler M (2017) Community-based participatory research for health: advancing social and health equity. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons

    Google Scholar 

  3. Balls-Berry JE, Acosta-Pérez E (2017) The use of community engaged research principles to improve health: community academic partnerships for research. P R Health Sci J 36(2):84–85

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Baum F, MacDougall C, Smith D (2006) Participatory action research. J Epidemiol Community Health 60(10):854–857. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.2004.028662

    CrossRef  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Kost RG, Leinberger-Jabari A, Evering TH, Holt PR, Neville-Williams M, Vasquez KS, Coller BS, Tobin JN (2017) Helping basic scientists engage with community partners to enrich and accelerate translational research. Acad Med 92(3):374–379. https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000001200

    CrossRef  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Ortega S, McAlvain MS, Briant KJ, Hohl S, Thompson B (2018) Perspectives of community advisory board members in a community-academic partnership. J Health Care Poor Underserved 29(4):1529–1543. https://doi.org/10.1353/hpu.2018.0110

    CrossRef  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Stewart MK, Boateng B, Joosten Y, Burshell D, Broughton H, Calhoun K, Huff Davis A, Hale R, Spencer N, Piechowski P, James L (2019) Community advisory boards: experiences and common practices of clinical and translational science award programs. J Clin Transl Sci 3(5):218–226. https://doi.org/10.1017/cts.2019.389

    CrossRef  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Yosso TJ (2005) Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth. Race Ethn Educ 8(1):69–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/1361332052000341006

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  9. Herzig M, Chasin L (2019) Fostering dialogues across divides. Essential Partners. https://whatisessential.org/resources/fostering-dialogue-across-divides

  10. Bernal DD (2002) Critical race theory, latino critical theory, and critical raced-gendered epistemologies: recognizing students of color as holders and creators of knowledge. Qual Inq 8(1):105–126. https://doi.org/10.1177/107780040200800107

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  11. Rodgers J, Valuev AV, Hswen Y, Subramanian SV (2019) Social capital and physical health: an updated review of the literature for 2007-2018. Soc Sci Med 236:112360. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112360

    CrossRef  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Folta SC, Curtin C, Must A, Pehrson A, Ryan K, Bandini L (2020) Impact of selective eating on social domains among transition-age youth with autism spectrum disorder: a qualitative study. J Autism Dev Disord 50(8):2902–2912. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04397-4

    CrossRef  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Clinical and translational science awards consortium community engagement key function committee task force on the principles of community engagement (2011) Principles of community engagement second edition

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sara Folta .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Folta, S., Hudson, L.B., Cohen, B., Cátala, A. (2022). Leveling the Playing Field for Community Stakeholders: Examining Practices to Improve Engagement and Address Power Dynamics. In: Lerner, D., Palm, M.E., Concannon, T.W. (eds) Broadly Engaged Team Science in Clinical and Translational Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83028-1_11

Download citation