In academia, it is increasingly in vogue to describe research as “community-engaged.” This label refers to research programs that work collaboratively with communities outside of academia on issues relevant to their interests and wellbeing.
However, the excitement over community-engaged research glosses over the fact that research and service are not the same thing. The infrastructures and incentives of the academic system are not aligned with creating sustainable community impact. Though community-engaged researchers, such as I, claim to work in partnership with and in service of outside communities, our misaligned incentives often create breakages that leave those very same communities in a lurch. I call these breakages the academy’s “community impact gap.”
What causes this gap and what can the academy do to address it? In the worst case, the impact gap leads to direct harm to groups of marginalized research subjects from the actions of researchers. But even the most well-designed and well-intentioned research can result in a trail of abandoned projects and disappointed community partners. Creating sustainable impact from community-engaged research is not a problem that can be solved by good intentions alone.
- Originally published in Digital Life Initiative Critical Reflections.
