ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors walk through some of the measurement narratives that currently shape work with communities, examine what evidence means in a community practice context, and provide some practical ideas about building research alliances, working out how to track and assess community practice and developing a research story for a range of audiences. They explore what community-based or community-oriented research looks like and why it is worth doing. If readers think of ‘research’ as a process of collecting information sorting that information and looking for patterns or trends, then we are doing research continually in our everyday community practice. Engaging with research practice means that readers are both intentionally seeking to improve the work they are doing and developing a deeper understanding of community dynamics and their own practice. Research is inherently political and in doing research readers are making a political claim.
