Embracing Diversity of Knowledges through Community-Based Participatory Health Research: Ongoing Challenges and Emerging Possibilities

Abstract

Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) is a research approach that holds the potential to democratize knowledge creation by increasing the participation of historically marginalized communities in the research process. However, while CBPR is premised on democratic values, it is not separate from social structures that uphold unequal power relations, and it is therefore not immune to reproducing inequalities. Drawing from literature on decolonization and participatory approaches, as well as from insights gained through my own research practice with communities affected by racial injustice in Germany, I reflect in this article on the democratizing potential of CBPR. I thereby seek to demonstrate how decolonial learning can be tangibly incorporated into research methodology and overall research practice. Specifically, I argue that a critical application of CBPR offers pathways for addressing epistemic injustice embedded in academic institutions and traditional research processes. Postcolonial readings of CBPR provide another powerful approach to confront epistemic injustices, including in CBPR.