The Power of Civic Research Communities
Cross-institutional, data-driven collaborations are a growing trend, inspiring the idea that research can simultaneously advance science and have a societal impact. This approach, often referred to as “urban informatics,” “smart & connected communities,” “publicly engaged research,” or “civic research,” has become especially popular in place-based efforts.
As this type of work proliferates, best practices have emerged for designing and sustaining successful collaborations. A key tenet is “partnerships over projects,” emphasizing the need for collaborators to establish trusting relationships and a shared vision for the value and use of data and science. While partnerships are necessary for projects to succeed, established partnerships are more likely to generate multiple meaningful, interconnected, and impactful projects.
But partnerships alone are not enough. A civic research community – spanning diverse researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and leaders from the nonprofit, corporate, and grassroots sectors – can enable the creation of dozens of partnerships and thus hundreds of projects. This community requires infrastructure, such as programming, activities, and resources, that enables its members to learn and grow together.
The Boston Area Research Initiative: A Model for Civic Research Communities
One example of such infrastructure is the Boston Area Research Initiative’s (BARI) annual conference, which convenes the civic research community of Greater Boston to share results from existing projects and partnerships and to foster new ones. BARI pursues civically engaged research that advances social, economic, and environmental justice in collaboration with the communities of Greater Boston.
The BARI Conference has evolved over nearly a decade, providing a model and lessons for other cities. Initially, the conference focused on “research-policy” collaboration, bridging the work of researchers and public officials. However, it became clear that for a civic research community to fully represent its region and serve the people who live there, it needed to engage community voices more deeply.
In 2022, the conference format shifted to replace panels with workshops, where invited speakers – primarily public officials and community leaders – challenged the audience to develop questions and ideas that could inspire new partnerships and projects. This experiment expanded the population of people who identified as part of the “BARI community.” Lessons from 2022 helped craft a more balanced format in 2023 and 2024, maintaining the unique forum for the civic research community to share their work while also keeping the elements that fostered broader engagement.
The Impact of the BARI Conference
The BARI Conference has had a significant impact on the civic research community in Greater Boston. Here are three examples of panels from the 2023 and 2024 conferences:
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Food Insecurity (2023): This panel featured speakers with diverse methodologies, from a traditional policy evaluation to an approximation of fast food access through cellphone data and a public data sculpture on hunger. The moderator and provocateur were leaders from local nonprofits, providing a panoramic view on the topic.
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Environmental Justice: Ensuring Community-Led, Research-Driven Solutions (2024): This panel featured universityâcommunity partnerships for tracking and pursuing environmental justice. Each project was co-presented by a university and community representative, ensuring deep insight from both sides of the collaborations.
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Reparations Workshop (2024): This workshop was led by a cross-institutional research team, Embrace Boston, and The Emancipator, a nonprofit digital magazine. Participants explored the definition of reparations, the challenges to designing and implementing them, and the research needed to help solve those challenges.
These examples illustrate the power of the BARI Conference to foster partnerships and projects that advance both scholarship and impact in the region. After the food insecurity panel, the entire staff of the Project Bread nonprofit returned the following year to present their own research. The environmental justice panel advanced conversations about how organizations can collectively pursue this shared goal, including the development of a major proposal for federally funded research infrastructure. And the Reparations Research Team, Embrace Boston, and The Emancipator used the workshop notes to inform their efforts to advance reparations in Boston.
Replicating the BARI Model in Other Communities
The BARI Conference is just one example of how a civic research community can be fostered to amplify partnerships and projects that advance both scholarship and impact in a region. While BARI operates in Greater Boston, the model can be replicated in other communities with a few key considerations:
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Start small: Identify the key players who are enthusiastic about learning and building together. Getting started can be challenging, so working with people and organizations with a shared commitment to civic research makes it easier to find momentum.
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Include a diverse range of expertise: Civic research entails multiple forms of expertise, from technical skills and theoretical understanding to cultural competency and insider knowledge of policy, practice, and daily life in communities. Designing programming for this wide range of experts requires an advising body that reflects the audience you want to engage.
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Let your values guide: Civic research leverages science and technology to advance the society we want to live in. A civic research community needs a set of shared values that can give shape to its goals and the pathways for attaining them.
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Learn and evolve together: Evaluating the effectiveness of a conference (or any other form of infrastructure) should include attention to diversity and representation. If certain types of expertise are underrepresented, it’s time to identify those with that expertise who are enthusiastic about civic research, incorporate their voices into new iterations of the programming and resources, and allow that conversation to further enrich the community’s values and outcomes.
The BARI Conference is just one model, but the principles of fostering a thriving civic research community can be applied in many different contexts. By starting small, embracing diverse expertise, grounding in shared values, and continuously learning and evolving, communities around the world can unlock the power of civic research to address local challenges and advance social, economic, and environmental justice.
To learn more about the Boston Area Research Initiative and its annual conference, visit the BARI website. And for information about Stanley Park High School, be sure to check out their website.
