LeDrew, Robin

Summary: "Unequal access to health care is a problem in Canada much studied by journalists, academics, and policy makers. There is a growing recognition that existing theories on, and approaches to, health inequities are limited in their ability to capture how these inequities are produced through changing, co-constituted, and intersecting effects of multiple forms of oppression. Intersectionality offers itself as a research paradigm capturing the complexities of illness and care, and this volume brings together Canadian activists, community-based researchers, and scholars from a range of disciplines to apply interpretations of intersectionality to cases in Indigenous health, mental health, migration health, community health, and organizational governance. By addressing specific health issues including cardiovascular disease, dementia, post-traumatic stress disorder, diabetes, and violence, this book advances methodological applications of intersectionality in health research, policy, and practice. The authors ultimately reveal how multiple variables are influencing health and healing in Canada -- not simply race, class, and gender but also age, religion, geography and place, and the state of the economy. Most importantly, it demonstrates that health inequities cannot be understood or addressed without the interrogation of power and diverse social locations and structures that shape lives and experiences of health."--Provided by publisher.

Provides an overview of the scope of the community based research (CBR) process as it relates to research focused on girls and womens health, and gender and health related issues. Although it is not an exhaustive guide, it is intended to give readers a solid understanding of CBR. One of a series of four WHRN primers focused on key areas and innovative approaches in girls' and women's health and gender and health research. Our Common Ground was developed out of a dialogue between an academic researcher with a background in gender, women’s health, and community based research (Colleen Reid); a community based researcher and practicing social worker (Robin LeDrew); and an academic researcher with training in medical physics (Elana Brief). This dialogue was supported and encouraged by the Women’s Health Research Network (WHRN) co-leaders, WHRN members, as well as attentive and engaged external reviewers. Throughout the development of Our Common Ground we debated language, format, and the intended audience. We wanted to develop a research guide rooted in the experiences and practices of community researchers, a guide that reflected the current Community Based Research (CBR) environment, and one that can help new researchers connect with this approach. To that end we held a series of events and gatherings that were structured as conversations with individuals and groups interested in CBR. The document before you emerged from these conversations. In Our Common Ground we provide an overview of the scope of the CBR process as it relates to research focused on girls’ and women’s health, and gender and health related issues. Although it is not an exhaustive guide, it is intended to give you a solid understanding of CBR. We hope that you find ways to use this document to help you advance your thinking about CBR, girls’ and women’s health, and gender and health, and, ultimately to identify the kind of research that most captures your passion and imagination.

The chapter, "Living an ethical agreement: negotiating confidentiality and harm in feminist participatory action research" was written by the listed authors including Colleen Reid (Douglas College Faculty). Feminist community research is a collaborative, policy-oriented methodology that holds the promise of empowering the disadvantaged and building a more just society. But in the absence of critical analysis and the responsible use of power, this approach can lead to naive or even harmful practices. Grounded as they are in fieldwork, the interdisciplinary case studies in this volume acknowledge the real methodological and ethical issues that researchers can encounter as they negotiate contested research relationships. The authors discuss the strategies — successful and unsuccessful — that they have employed to overcome these challenges. The authors’ collective experiences working with diverse groups, from immigrant and Aboriginal women in Vancouver to poverty-reduction practitioners in Vietnam, reveal that truly equitable research projects require that we question core concepts and address crucial issues such as the promises and limits of reflexivity; the politics of place, time, and resources; ethical dilemmas and emotional responses; and the way issues of social justice, policy, and social change are embedded in research. ­-- From publisher description.