Little has been written about how to negotiate successful partnerships between the action researcher and the community partner. This article describes two action research case studies. Although both case studies highlight a partnership with a community development corporation, one partnership was highly contentious while the other operated more smoothly and produced fruitful outcomes. These case studies are compared to draw conclusions about how successful researcher—community partnerships are developed. The activist sociologist must learn that trust between the researcher and community partner is primarily built with time, rigorous self-examination and communication.
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