Walking to Build a Critical Community-Engaged Project: Collaborative Observations of Neighborhood Change in Long Beach, California

Academic and community research partnerships have gained traction as a potential bridge between the university and local area to address pressing social issues. A key question for developing justice-oriented research is how to integrate best practices for creating genuine, authentic research partner...

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Main Authors: Claudia Maria López, R. Varisa Patraporn, Kelliana Lim, Kylee Khan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-04-01
Series:Social Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/11/5/183
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author Claudia Maria López
R. Varisa Patraporn
Kelliana Lim
Kylee Khan
author_facet Claudia Maria López
R. Varisa Patraporn
Kelliana Lim
Kylee Khan
author_sort Claudia Maria López
collection DOAJ
description Academic and community research partnerships have gained traction as a potential bridge between the university and local area to address pressing social issues. A key question for developing justice-oriented research is how to integrate best practices for creating genuine, authentic research partnerships. In this paper, we discuss the process of building a critical community-engaged project that examines how urban redevelopment changes neighborhoods within immigrant and/or communities of color. Focusing on Long Beach, California, in this article, we detail the development of a mixed-methods study that involves undergraduate students and community members as co-collaborators. We discuss the use and outcomes of co-walking as method, emphasizing observational findings, as well as the process of building team collaboration. We find that neighborhoods in Long Beach are changing rapidly in terms of the use of greening, increased technology integration within neighborhoods, and modern aesthetics, revealing that new residents will likely be younger and single residents with disposable income and no children. From this process, we identified a more critical question for the research project: “Development for whom?”. We argue that co-walking as method is an observational and relational process that assists with the foundational steps of building a critical community-engaged research project.
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spelling doaj.art-7ebaaffc58604258b39c56071fc83d9a2023-11-23T13:04:49ZengMDPI AGSocial Sciences2076-07602022-04-0111518310.3390/socsci11050183Walking to Build a Critical Community-Engaged Project: Collaborative Observations of Neighborhood Change in Long Beach, CaliforniaClaudia Maria López0R. Varisa Patraporn1Kelliana Lim2Kylee Khan3Department of Sociology, California State University, Long Beach, Long Beach, CA 90840, USADepartment of Sociology, California State University, Long Beach, Long Beach, CA 90840, USADepartment of Sociology, California State University, Long Beach, Long Beach, CA 90840, USADepartment of Sociology, California State University, Long Beach, Long Beach, CA 90840, USAAcademic and community research partnerships have gained traction as a potential bridge between the university and local area to address pressing social issues. A key question for developing justice-oriented research is how to integrate best practices for creating genuine, authentic research partnerships. In this paper, we discuss the process of building a critical community-engaged project that examines how urban redevelopment changes neighborhoods within immigrant and/or communities of color. Focusing on Long Beach, California, in this article, we detail the development of a mixed-methods study that involves undergraduate students and community members as co-collaborators. We discuss the use and outcomes of co-walking as method, emphasizing observational findings, as well as the process of building team collaboration. We find that neighborhoods in Long Beach are changing rapidly in terms of the use of greening, increased technology integration within neighborhoods, and modern aesthetics, revealing that new residents will likely be younger and single residents with disposable income and no children. From this process, we identified a more critical question for the research project: “Development for whom?”. We argue that co-walking as method is an observational and relational process that assists with the foundational steps of building a critical community-engaged research project.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/11/5/183community-engaged researchwalkingstudent researchersqualitative methodsurban development
spellingShingle Claudia Maria López
R. Varisa Patraporn
Kelliana Lim
Kylee Khan
Walking to Build a Critical Community-Engaged Project: Collaborative Observations of Neighborhood Change in Long Beach, California
Social Sciences
community-engaged research
walking
student researchers
qualitative methods
urban development
title Walking to Build a Critical Community-Engaged Project: Collaborative Observations of Neighborhood Change in Long Beach, California
title_full Walking to Build a Critical Community-Engaged Project: Collaborative Observations of Neighborhood Change in Long Beach, California
title_fullStr Walking to Build a Critical Community-Engaged Project: Collaborative Observations of Neighborhood Change in Long Beach, California
title_full_unstemmed Walking to Build a Critical Community-Engaged Project: Collaborative Observations of Neighborhood Change in Long Beach, California
title_short Walking to Build a Critical Community-Engaged Project: Collaborative Observations of Neighborhood Change in Long Beach, California
title_sort walking to build a critical community engaged project collaborative observations of neighborhood change in long beach california
topic community-engaged research
walking
student researchers
qualitative methods
urban development
url https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/11/5/183
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