ABSTRACT
What role can researchers play in supporting rural communities to create the futures they want? This chapter uses the concept of accompaniment to challenge mainstream rural development knowledge practices and present an alternative methodology. Drawing on the experiences of locally embedded Regional Research Centers in Australia, this chapter demonstrates that rural development is a cross-boundary knowledge problem that requires dialog among academic and local forms of knowledge. The knowledge partnering methodology was developed as a tool for university researchers and community development practitioners to conceptualize and operationalize this dialog when accompanying locally led rural development.
