Who counts in civically engaged research? Rethinking expertise and authority in politics

Abstract

Calls for political science and related disciplines to inform public debates and contribute to public policy have proliferated in recent years. Scholars increasingly work with high-level policymakers and top government agencies, international organizations, private foundations, and corporations. This article highlights the need to broaden the mainstream of public and policy-facing work, putting local communities at the center of research and research-policy relations. To demonstrate the importance of putting communities first in civically engaged research (CER), we put forward a conceptual framework that takes stock of problems associated with the traditional research process as well as with narrow engagements with elite actors. Through illustrative vignettes, we show how CER is uniquely positioned to disrupt these dynamics and amplify the expertise within communities that are directly connected with, and impacted by, research and research-policy relations. We argue that an understanding of research problems that aligns with the perspectives of communities, and the incorporation of local and contextually nuanced insights, is essential for equalizing and localizing the benefits of research to participants and broader communities, and for generating better scholarship and better policy.

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