New PhD project - Examining ‘trust’ within collaborative participatory research

New PhD project - Examining ‘trust’ within collaborative participatory research 

Since joining BVSC Research in 2022, much of my work has focused on strengthening connections between academic researchers and VCFSE organisations and the communities they work with. This has included developing and delivering engagement opportunities, supporting community-led research projects, and facilitating VCFSE organisations’ contribution within knowledge exchange networks. 

Across all of this work, one theme has been consistent throughout: trust. 

I have heard from countless individuals — citizens, colleagues from the VCFSE and public sectors, and academic partners — about the need to (re)build trust between researchers and communities. In particular, those communities who have been harmed through research exploitation, marginalisation and erasure. People have also spoken to me about the need for greater trust in the knowledges and expertise of communities, trust in communities to create new knowledge, to shape future wellbeing and the responses to the needs and challenges experienced within them. 

Narratives of scepticism and resistance towards research have laid bare the legacy of unethical research practices and a wariness of distant institutions. Trust is seen to have been negatively impacted by transient research relationships, of control being denied or curtailed, and a frustration at the lack of tangible change despite research activity.  

Within this context, some position ‘civil society’ as a means through which trust may be (re)built, with civil society acting as a partner, collaborator and active participant (rather than passive subject) in the research process. Definitions of ‘civil society’ have shifted over time, but the term is generally understood to refer those individuals and organised or organic groups (including charities, grassroots organisations, faith groups etc) that sit outside of state control or management and undertake social action for community good. As such, they can be seen to act as a potential bridge between communities and those traditionally tasked with building knowledge and developing policies and practices to meet needs within society. 

Of course, none of the above is new. In the 1940’s Lewin’s work on ‘action research’ and later in the 1970s, Friere’s development of participatory research activity, both centred respect for the knowledge and expertise of communities, and the necessity of meaningful involvement to create change, signalling the importance of trust in this process. Over the last twenty years an interest in ‘participation’ in research has grown, with a proliferation in the development of models of participatory research approaches across a range of academic disciplines, including for example, ‘Community Based Participatory Research’ (CBPR)’, ‘Appreciative Inquiry’ and ‘Citizen Science’. Again, trust has been at the heart of much of this advancement, with calls to move away from extractive research practices and do more to move towards a decolonisation of research. 

These approaches sit against a backdrop of wider democratic innovations to increase civic participation and diversify the voices heard within political decision-making processes, of which research can be seen as a fundamental part. Processes of ‘co-design’ and ‘co-production’ have become increasingly commonplace, as state actors have recognised a need to shore up legitimacy amidst the challenges facing representative democracy, and to develop effective responses to increasingly complex social problems, in an increasingly uncertain world. Collaboration between those with expertise – citizens, VCFSE organisations, academics and policy makers – is seen as essential to both build trust and enable innovation. 

Given all of this, perhaps it should have come as no surprise that trust featured so prominently in the accounts of those with whom I’ve worked. What does still feel surprising however, given the way in which trust features so heavily in notions of participatory approaches and collaboration (within and outside research), is how little is known about trust in this context. There is currently a lack of research which examines the way in which trust is understood and operates in practice within community engaged and participatory research, and whilst it is suggested that trust supports the effectiveness of collaborative practices, how it does this is similarly under-explored. It is problematic that we know so little, if we accept that supporting and enabling trust should be a core part of research activity, and it appears important that we should seek to understand more about the relations between those engaged in such collaborations. 

With this realisation, in October 2024, I began a PhD study on this topic. My study will explore: 

(a) the role of civil society within participatory research collaborations 

(b) the ways in which those involved participatory research collaborations understand and experience the operation of trust and power 

(c) the associated collaborative practices that support ‘partnership synergy’, which refers to the ability of partners to achieve more together than they would individually. 

The research will take an interdisciplinary approach drawing upon insights from the fields of Public Administration, Psychology, Third Sector Research and Geography. The project is supervised by Prof. Jessica Pykett and Dr Gerald Jordan and is funded by the Centre for National Training and Research Excellence in Understanding Behaviour (Centre UB) at the University of Birmingham. 

Centre UB partners with local, national and international organisations across the private, public and voluntary sectors to design and conduct research which examines aspects of human behaviour. The focus of the multidisciplinary Centre is to better understand behaviour at an individual, group, community, environment and system level, conducting research which has a positive scientific and practical impact on societal challenges. You can find out more about opportunities through Centre UB here. 

Over the next three years I intend to post regular blogs about my research here, and would really welcome the opportunity to discuss it with those who may be interested.

You can contact me via the following email: [email protected]