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Turning the gaze challenges of involving biomedical researchers in community engagement with research in Patan Nepal.pdf (1.42 MB)

Turning the gaze: challenges of involving biomedical researchers in community engagement with research in Patan, Nepal

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 12:20 authored by Sian Aggett
Global health funding bodies are increasingly promoting and offering specific funding support for public and community engagement activities, in addition to research and programme funding. In the context of this growing commitment to engagement work, we need to find ways to better support contextually appropriate and meaningful exchanges between researchers and community members. I argue that, rather than focusing solely on how to involve communities in engagement with global health research, we should also pay attention to the quality and depth of the involvement of researchers themselves. This is an often overlooked dimension of community engagement in both practice and the literature. In this paper, I present three contextual factors, which created logistical and attitudinal obstacles for researchers’ involvement in meaningful engagement in a global health research unit in Nepal. These comprised implicit and explicit messages from funders, institutional and disciplinary hierarchies and educational experiences. Lessons were drawn from an exploration of the successes and failures of two participatory arts projects connected to the research unit in 2015 and 2016. Both projects intended to foster mutual understanding between researchers and members of their research population. As an engagement practitioner and ethnographic researcher, I documented the processes.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Critical Public Health

ISSN

0958-1596

Publisher

Taylor and Francis

Issue

3

Volume

28

Page range

306-317

Department affiliated with

  • Anthropology Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2018-02-28

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2018-02-28

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2018-02-28

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