Engaged Research: Strengthening Research Teams Through Community Researchers

Abstract

Engaged research, which strengthens research teams through community researchers, offers many opportunities and challenges. From better access to community members who are hard to reach, to the collection of more meaningful and authentic data, and greater trustworthiness of research findings, the benefits for research are manifold. However, research has also shown that community researchers might be overtly biased, only collect superficial data or lack the confidence to probe deeply enough, among other challenges. Simultaneously, the literature on community researchers is heavily biased towards high-income countries, and there is very little to be found on experiences from low-and middle-income countries that goes beyond assistance in obtaining informed consent. This chapter starts to close that gap by presenting a case study involving 12 community researchers from the South African San community. Collecting no personal data and obtaining all research input through community researchers shows that research led by vulnerable groups for vulnerable groups is possible. It is one way of ensuring that the San, and wider research communities, have access to research they can trust.