Community-Led Research

The concept of Community-Led Research has taken off in recent years in a variety of fields, from archaeology and anthropology to social work and everything in between. Drawing on case studies from Australia and the Pacific, this book considers what it means to participate in Community-Led Research, for both communities and researchers. How can researchers and communities work together well, and how can research be reimagined using the knowledge of First Nations peoples and other communities to ensure it remains relevant, sustainable, socially just and inclusive?

James Flexner is senior lecturer in historical archaeology and heritage at the University of Sydney. His interests include historical archaeology, landscape archaeology, the Oceanic region, and how to build a better world for human beings to live in.

Lynette Riley is a Wiradjuri and Gamilaroi woman. She is Program Director of Indigenous Studies and Aboriginal Education at the University of Sydney. Her interests focus on improving education for Aboriginal people, cultural education for non-Aboriginal people, and appropriate research practices with Aboriginal people.

Victoria Rawlings is a lecturer in the University of Sydney School of Education and Social Work. Her research focuses on the ways that schools and other institutions produce messages around gender and sexuality, and how these cultures impact the experiences of the people within these institutions.

Introduction: walking many paths towards a community-led paradigm by Victoria Rawlings, James L Flexner and Lynette Riley

1. Exploring community-led research through an Aboriginal lens by Lynette Riley
2. Way more than a town hall meeting: connecting with what people care about in community-led disaster planning by Dara Sampson, Meaghan Katrak, Margot Rawsthorne and Amanda Howard
3.  It’s right, wrong, easy and difficult: learning how to be thoughtful and inclusive of community in research by Samantha McMahon and Anthony McKnight
4.  The Killer Boomerang and other lessons learnt on the journey to undertaking community-led research by Emma Webster, Yvonne Hill, Allan Hall and Cecil See
5.  What is a researcher? Definitions, bureaucracy and ironies in the Australian context by Helena Robinson, James L Flexner and Imelda Miller
6.  Who steers the canoe? Community-led field archaeology in Vanuatu by James L Flexner
7. Researcher or student? Knowing when not to know in community-led Indigenous research by Sheelagh Daniels-Mayes
8. Trepidation, trust and time: working with Aboriginal communities by Julie Welsh and Cathie Burgess
9. Pushing back on ‘risk’: co-designing research on self-harm and suicide with queer young people by Victoria Rawlings and Elizabeth McDermott 

About the contributors
Index

'Community-led Research' collects an important, interdisciplinary range of contributions that each work towards addressing the stated aim of shifting the balance of academic power from researcher led studies to those which are conceived of, shaped and driven by research communities ... This is an important read for all researchers, including archaeologists, whether they routinely work with communities or not. It will challenge existing practice and encourage new ways of conducting research, one where the researcher no longer takes primacy.'
Jordan Ralph   Australasian Historical Archaeology

Format: paperback
Size: 210 × 148 × 8 mm
204 pages
b&w illustrations and b&w tables
Copyright: © 2021
ISBN: 9781743327579
Publication: 01 Jul 2021