Resident researchers collaborate on their podcast. Photo: Shinelle Kirk
When the communities bearing the brunt of climate change are studied, it can often look like this: Academics parachute in, quiz anonymous residents on their experiences, and then turn the data into dry reports that get hidden behind paywalls. The study’s subjects aren’t credited for their expertise and never benefit from the knowledge derived from their lives.
The Healthy Neighborhoods Study (HNS) is flipping the script. This study, implemented with support from CLF, MIT, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, uses the Participatory Action Research model, which recruits residents to be researchers. Instead of treating residents as “subjects,” this model treats them as experts in their own communities and experiences.
They are involved in every stage of the project, from designing the study and…