Conference session

What kinds of relationships, power dynamics and opportunities for learning and relating are supported - or hindered - by community engaged research methods? Such methods can divide communities and leave them more vulnerable to exploitation; they also have the potential to unite and strengthen relationships, giving our relations (who might otherwise be considered researched populations) more choice and social power. This session explores the practises and implications of developing community partnerships primarily through networks of individuals, rather than institutions like social service providers. This reframe of research ethics acknowledges that no researchers are truly disconnected from those they research, and orients ethics around connection and increased relational skill building and agency for us and our relations (those who are researched). Drawing on the presenters' respective lived experiences as part of diverse urban Indigenous and 2SLGBTQ+ communities, an initial presentation will lay out relationality concepts (keeoukaywin, wicihitowin, wahkohtowin, relational skill building, agency), with attention to some basics of Cree and Métis law. Then a workshop format will provide an opportunity for researchers to collaboratively explore these questions through focused scenarios and prompt questions that consider: positionality and how the researcher is related to the researched group; other individuals and institutions that are of, with and working for that group; approaches to developing research methods that support relational skill building and agency; and understanding implications for ourselves as researchers and people of, or related to, the researched group.