An idea whose time has come? Community-led action research in Scotland

In this blog, David Allan, Deputy Director of SCDC, shares his thoughts around the progress of community-led action research – and what could be next for this approach in Scotland.

For more than a decade, SCDC has been involved in promoting and developing new and innovative community-led approaches to research in Scotland.

For us, community-led action research is a clear example of community development in action. It’s communities coming together to decide what issues needs to be researched, designing and carrying out the research, and making use of the results.

We’ve also recently seen a significant shift in the way research is viewed by academia, funders and government with more of a focus on community involvement and engagement in research - and less of a focus on top-down research.

Has community-led action research’s time come? We think so. And we’re beginning to have conversations about what this might look like.

Where are we now?

Over the past few years there have been some significant developments in community-led action research in Scotland and across the UK.

We’ve seen examples such as the Community Knowledge Matters network based in the Highlands and Islands and Community Participatory Action Research in the South-East of England. Knowledge is Power supported organisations to take this approach in their communities.

This work has shown how putting the power of gathering and using evidence into the hands of communities has real potential as a key tool for realising Scotland’s policy ambitions.

We’ve seen communities taking the lead on research around community empowerment, public health, community wealth building, and public service reform.

What’s the vision for community-led action research?

As this work has progressed, we have begun to appreciate the power of community-led research as a tool for change in communities and a way to increase community influence and control over the issues that affect their lives.

To see this approach used in more communities, we’d like to see community-led action research approaches endorsed by stakeholders from across the public, academic and third sectors – recognising its value and ability to affect positive change.

We also want to see more resources for it to take place in different settings across Scotland, and see shared learning and good practice used to promote the approach.

What’s next?

To help get this started, we’re beginning to have conversations about how we can take community-led action research further in Scotland.

We know that all the activity we’ve seen has established an evidence base for the value and impact of community-led approaches to research and its links to direct action in, with and by communities.

We’ll be sharing more as this work progresses – in the meantime, explore some our community-led action research resource and, if you’ve got ideas to share, get in touch.