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3 - Community-Based Research

from Part I - Methods

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2020

By
Randy Stoecker
Edited by
Katharine Legun ,
Julie C. Keller ,
Michael Carolan  and
Michael M. Bell
Katharine Legun
Affiliation:
Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands
Julie C. Keller
Affiliation:
University of Rhode Island
Michael Carolan
Affiliation:
Colorado State University
Michael M. Bell
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Madison
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Summary

This chapter explores the role of community-based research (CBR) in environmental sociology. CBR has both an academic origin, from Kurt Lewin, and an activist origin, from Rajesh Tandon, and it has developed independently from environmental sociology. This chapter will define CBR, following Strand et al., as a collaborative enterprise between academic researchers and community members that seeks to democratizes knowledge to achieve social justice. It will then go on to look at the challenges facing CBR, such as establishing itself as a legitimate knowledge practice, and managing the tension between process and product. Next, the chapter covers various ways that CBR has been used in environmental sociology, including climate change, food systems, natural resource management, sustainable behavior change, and environmental justice. The chapter concludes by proposing a future direction for CBR in environmental sociology to expand its impact.

Keywords

community-based researchenvironmental justiceclimate changefood systemssustainable behavior change
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Sociology , pp. 47 - 60
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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