Community-based Research: Analysis of Outcomes for Learning and Social Change

Broadly defined, community-based research (CBR) is a process of conducting research that embraces and integrates the participation and local knowledge of people in communities and organizations with the goal of informing efforts to achieve social change. Although several publications on CBR exist, they primarily focus on processes, methods, and tools for developing and implementing CBR projects. This special issue of the Journal of Rural Social Sciences builds from that knowledge base, analyzes the outcomes of real-world CBR projects, and assesses learning outcomes for students, faculty, organizations, and community residents. This introduction to the special issue provides an overview of the academic and practical applications of communitybased research that aim to achieve learning outcomes and social change for both universityand communitybased partners. It includes a review of theoretical concepts and methodological approaches comprising CBR, followed by a summary of the articles in this issue. The idea for developing this collection of individual works on community-based research (CBR) evolved from a workshop at the 2009 annual meeting of the Rural Sociological Society (RSS) held in Madison, Wisconsin, entitled “Community-based Research: Documenting and Learning from Project Outcomes.” The workshop was organized and facilitated by John J. Green and Randy Stoecker, two sociologists with experience in designing and implementing CBR initiatives. Several contributors to this special issue participated in the RSS workshop and were subsequently invited, along with others, to develop manuscripts drawing from their experiences as students, practitioners, and professors working with communitybased and non-governmental organizations through a variety of development initiatives. The guest editors for this special issue would like to thank the editors, staff, and reviewers of the Journal of Rural Social Sciences for their assistance with this project. Additionally, the University of Mississippi Center for Population Studies is recognized for co-sponsoring this special issue.