This last section was the heart of the inventory — what we most wanted to know from communities. While much sociological and anthropological literature has documented the problems with and barriers to developing egalitarian and collaborative relationships between researchers and communities, we knew far less about the needs and visions of communities in this particular region who are working on environmental justice issues specifically. To that end, we asked communities to describe their vision of an ideal working relationship between activists and communities both generally and as it pertained specifically to the Environmental Justice Project. We also posed the “magic wand” question to communities: if you could have any sort of research project conducted, what would you choose?
For communities interviewed, an ideal working relationship with university researchers depends on:
Research needs ranged from very specifically focused studies (e.g., investigating links between pesticide exposure and rates of miscarriage among pregnant women) to community health surveys to inventories of resources and allies for purposes of movement building.
Activists also called for different kinds of research than that conducted according to the standard hard sciences model. hard sciences model research that is more holistic, practical, accessible, and not based on the traditional eurocentric assumption of human control over nature Community-led research was viewed as a good thing in that it challenged the assumption that “only Einsteins can do things like this,” but these benefits were undermined if universities did not provide the technical support or official backing needed to legitimate community research findings. In addition to studies, communities also expressed a need for other resources universities could provide, such as interns or students who could assist with data collection or analysis for internal research projects.
Specific recommendations for developing the EJP as a center for participatory action research participatory action research research that centrally involves communities in its conception and implementation and that assists in activists’ struggles for social change fell into three broad categories: