Understanding the Role of Community in Knowledge Mobilisation

Collaboration is how knowledge mobilisation (KMb) understands the role of community and can mean many things. In participatory action research (PAR), collaboration means a community is involved in all parts of the research process. Community members help create the research question, make decisions about methodology, help to gather and analyse research materials, and assist in developing and sharing the findings. KMb frames the engagement of communities in the same way. I explore the role of community within KMb outside of this limited frame through case studies of two community organisations that lead a KMb project. The co-production pathway to impact model was used to analyse the collaborations with community partners. I used the four stages to investigate the engagement of academics, researchers, and communities within KMb. The stages were knowledge production, dissemination, uptake, and implementation. The exploration of these two KMb projects through the co-production pathway to impact model identified three main ideas. First, academics and researchers experience structural limitations that force them to often disengage with a KMb project after dissemination. Second, communities engaged in a KMb project are more likely to engage in the uptake and implementation stages. Finally, communities experience unique barriers in the uptake and implementation phase that are rarely considered within knowledge mobilisation. I considered how the use of disability-related anti-oppression frameworks such as crip time could be used to address some of the concerns related to uptake and implementation.