The collaborative and multi-perspective orientation of community-engaged scholarship shifts the goals of research from simply producing “new knowledge” to a focus on mutually beneficial, action-oriented research for positive change.
Community-engaged scholarship achieves a shift through the rebalancing of power dynamics regarding what knowledge is considered valuable, through the creation of new tools for data-rich advocacy, and through the building of capacity within the university and lay communities. Our contribution to that effort will be to shift the paradigm for scholars to think differently about our own role in creating and using scientific knowledge to solve social problems. The collaborative and multi-perspective orientation of community-engaged scholarship shifts the goals of research from simply producing “new knowledge” to a focus on mutually beneficial, action-oriented research for positive change.