Power,Privilege,and the Process of Community-Based Participatory Research: Critical Reflections on Forging an Empowered Partnership for Environmental Justice in West Oakland,California

Abstract

Abstract

Although some scholars recognize community empowerment as a desired outcome of the participatory research process, the power dynamics that shape the process and outcomes of research partnerships are rarely explicitly addressed in appraising partnership success. Participatory research is often portrayed as a means of building community power because it involves those most affected by the issues being researched in the decisions that guide the process of producing knowledge. This article explores how questions of power and privilege have played out in a long-term partnership between a nonprofit research institute and a community-based organization to document environmental and health conditions in West Oakland, CA. After over a decade of working together, a series of one-on-one and group dialogues among partners explored power dynamics both internal and external to the partnership, and generated shared analysis to inform future collaborations. Internal power dynamics refer to how differentials in power and privilege across partners manifest in joint work, such as asymmetries in educational credentialing, recognition, and reward incentive structures within and across partner organizations. External power and privilege dynamics refer to how differentials in power between the partnership and target audiences manifest in joint work, such as asymmetries in access to financial resources and credibility with decision makers. The shared analysis generated by partners links internal and external power dynamics to create a deeper understanding of the “ripple effects” of these dynamics across the process and outcomes of the partnership.