OUR APPROACH TO research justice, data justice, and community data
What does research and data justice look like in action? Access our research bibliography for a list of readings and scholars that inform our work.
Research justice challenges the widely accepted belief that researchers know best because of the degrees they hold and the positions of power they occupy. Instead, a research justice process is always led by those most impacted by the issues being researched. It centers and values people’s lived experiences and everyday realities as trusted evidence to realize changes that communities desire. Our research justice strategy is driven by the following:
Community members are experts.
BIPOC communities are positioned as researchers rather than the subjects of research and inquiry.
BIPOC communities already have the capacity to conduct critical and systemic inquiry into their own lived experiences.
BIPOC knowledge and expertise can counter dominant cultural narratives that center deficit models rather than strengths- and desire-based models.
Data justice is a framework designed to address the harmful impacts of data practices on historically marginalized communities, especially on BIPOC communities. It seeks to counteract the historical and continued weaponization of data that has reinforced oppressive systems and harmful policies. In other words, data justice focuses on collecting, interpreting, and using community-centered knowledge and experiences to counter systemic erasure and harm. Data justice emphasizes the importance of:
Highlighting community-driven needs, challenges, strengths, and desires.
Ensuring data accurately represents the community.
Handling data in ways that support and promote the community’s self-determination.
Community data is evidence generated by communities about their everyday lives and experiences. It can take on many forms, including numbers, words, art, music and sound, and maps. This data captures the multiple and diverse ways that communities share, express, and articulate their lived experiences and desires for the future.
Community data is a reflection of community-centric forms of knowing, being, doing, and dreaming. It is collected, interpreted, and used systematically and on the terms of community; it provides context about human experiences – past, present, and the desired future. Research and data justice practices can result in the generation of community data, but not exclusively. In order to generate community data, a data effort must follow these five principles:
Be based on relationships within community
Respect community-defined boundaries
Engage a diversity of actors
Challenge dominant systems of power
Ensure tangible benefits for community members
To learn more about community data and the five principles, download our Community Data report here.
