Social Determinants of Health <[log in to unmask]> writes:
>>A thoughtful analysis, Linda. I worked as a community development 
>>consultant in northern BC for many years. The most successful projects 
>>with which I was associated were definitely grassroots. They were 
>>generated by the communities, in response to needs the communities had 
>>identified. The participatory research component measured things of 
>>interest to the communities. The results were useful because they
>answered 
>>(or attempted to answer) the community's own questions. The results also 
>>belonged to them, through a process shaped by them.

Thanks for the discussion and thanks to Rhonda Love for posting some 
materials that allow critical insight into the social role of the
university, and the factors that actively shape the role of the university
 today. 

My question about community based practice was less on the area of changes
in primary care (which I know less about) and more focused on social and
community based services which I think will face increasing
depoliticization in future, particularly as they are moved under the
umbrella of health servicess, if they are.  Having said that, I find it
interesting that some of those online who are familiar with CBPR in the
area of medicine see CBPR as a kind of a check on academic medicine. If I
am understanding correctly, it would be interesting to know more about how
that working.     

What I think we are witnessing is an enormous expansion of the influence
of the university. My thinking about that is as follows: Given the
organization of knowledge production in the university and the constraints
that disciplinarity exerts on knowledge production (and it's true that
corporate intrusions give the screw several further turns) I see 
disciplinarity working very much as a form of social regulatory power.
Now, if the university is currently in an expansionist phase, in which its
influence is either increasing dramatically or being reasserted, I wonder
if we aren't witnessing a reinvigoration of powers of the university in
the regulation of social practices, and in particular in the regulation of
community based practices. 

It's possible  this is working in different ways in different areas of
practice but I'm very interested to know whether others are observing what
I do. This is not to say of course that there aren't academics here and
there who are working against the grain of these trends, using the power
vested in them by the academy to support the autonomy and the agency of
communities and the power of communities in knowledge production. However,
I wonder if that is the prevailing trend. 

But then I also wonder whether if this is not another wave in the
appropriation of community-based knowledge. After all isn't appropriation
one of the ways universities have accumulated knowledge historically and
then made claims to the  ownership of that knowledge?  Given what I think
I've been observing, I don't think I believe that CBPR is about the
decentralization of knowledge production to the community. It seems to be
more about the consolidation of the university's role in knowledge
production and in the governance of knowledge systems. However, I'm
interested in any thoughts and discussion about this.  

____________________________
Linda Green, OISE/UT
Counselling for Community Settings
[log in to unmask]

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