First Annual Working Meeting
Berlin, Germany
March 22nd - 24th, 2010
Executive Summary of the Meeting
The First Annual Working Meeting of the International Collaboration on Participatory Health Research (ICPHR) was held in Berlin, Germany from March 22‐24, 2010 at the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB). The ICPHR was founded in 2009 as a joint project of the Research Group Public Health at the WZB, the Wellesley Institute (Toronto, Canada), and the Liverpool John Moores University (Liverpool, United Kingdom). The idea was to establish a forum for discussing emerging and long‐standing issues in Participatory Health Research (PHR), particularly those that arise from the creative tension between action and research agendas.
The goal is to establish PHR as an integrated part of local, regional, and national strategies in order to address issues of health inequality by speaking to the needs of disadvantaged communities. Through consolidating existing knowledge and reaching agreement on common terminology and principles, the Collaboration intends to strengthen the role of PHR in intervention design and decision‐making on health issues.
This includes developing guidelines for conducting and evaluating PHR, describing which forms of theory and evidence are produced by this approach, and finding a means for conducting systematic reviews of the PHR literature in order to contribute to the body of international
knowledge on community health. At this first working meeting the focus was on confirming the core objectives of the Collaboration as proposed by the founding institutions, agreeing on a structure for coordinating the work, and identifying initial topics for joint action.
The fifteen participants at this meeting included academic researchers and representatives from governmental and non‐governmental organizations working in participatory health research in a range of institutions in North America (Canada and the United States), Latin America (Mexico) and Europe (Sweden, The Netherlands, Germany, and the United Kingdom). Several of those who were invited but could not attend contributed by email. The first task was to establish common understandings and to begin to explore issues and challenges in PHR internationally.
The key challenges named included:
In small working groups working definitions of key terms were developed. Participants then went into more in‐depth discussion about the complexities of PHR. A central question was: How do we make the leap from local or context‐specific knowledge and experience to something that could reflect shared understandings or standards? This challenge of reconciling different levels of knowledge as well as different forms of knowledge arising from very different cultural contexts was prominent in the discussions. We considered ways for beginning to create a common language.
As the meeting progressed we sought to refine our discussion,recognizing that some of the questions and debates raised would be an ongoing part of the development of the collaboration. Importantly, the participants began to assemble common issues for future work that were clustered into three broad areas:
These core areas came to serve as the foundations for the formation of the first three Action Groups. Action Group Coordinators were identified and initial work plans for the coming year were formulated.
To support the work of the Action Groups the structure proposed by the founding institutions was agreed up. The Central Office will be in Berlin, initially located at the WZB, then moving to the Catholic University for Applied Sciences Berlin. The Central Office will be supported by an Executive Committee composed of the founding institutions and a Central Working Group including the Executive Committee and the Action Group Coordinators. The most important result of the first annual meeting was the affirmation of the goals and objectives as envisioned by the founding institutions and the strong desire to work on concrete issues which have relevance across international and cultural boundaries.
Berlin, Germany
March 22nd - 24th, 2010
Executive Summary of the Meeting
The First Annual Working Meeting of the International Collaboration on Participatory Health Research (ICPHR) was held in Berlin, Germany from March 22‐24, 2010 at the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB). The ICPHR was founded in 2009 as a joint project of the Research Group Public Health at the WZB, the Wellesley Institute (Toronto, Canada), and the Liverpool John Moores University (Liverpool, United Kingdom). The idea was to establish a forum for discussing emerging and long‐standing issues in Participatory Health Research (PHR), particularly those that arise from the creative tension between action and research agendas.
The goal is to establish PHR as an integrated part of local, regional, and national strategies in order to address issues of health inequality by speaking to the needs of disadvantaged communities. Through consolidating existing knowledge and reaching agreement on common terminology and principles, the Collaboration intends to strengthen the role of PHR in intervention design and decision‐making on health issues.
This includes developing guidelines for conducting and evaluating PHR, describing which forms of theory and evidence are produced by this approach, and finding a means for conducting systematic reviews of the PHR literature in order to contribute to the body of international
knowledge on community health. At this first working meeting the focus was on confirming the core objectives of the Collaboration as proposed by the founding institutions, agreeing on a structure for coordinating the work, and identifying initial topics for joint action.
The fifteen participants at this meeting included academic researchers and representatives from governmental and non‐governmental organizations working in participatory health research in a range of institutions in North America (Canada and the United States), Latin America (Mexico) and Europe (Sweden, The Netherlands, Germany, and the United Kingdom). Several of those who were invited but could not attend contributed by email. The first task was to establish common understandings and to begin to explore issues and challenges in PHR internationally.
The key challenges named included:
- Identifying and demonstrating the value of PHR
- Theorizing PHR
- Giving voice to the full range of PHR
- Challenging mainstream assumptions (e.g. around rigour and evidence base)
- Building relationships among PHR proponents
In small working groups working definitions of key terms were developed. Participants then went into more in‐depth discussion about the complexities of PHR. A central question was: How do we make the leap from local or context‐specific knowledge and experience to something that could reflect shared understandings or standards? This challenge of reconciling different levels of knowledge as well as different forms of knowledge arising from very different cultural contexts was prominent in the discussions. We considered ways for beginning to create a common language.
As the meeting progressed we sought to refine our discussion,recognizing that some of the questions and debates raised would be an ongoing part of the development of the collaboration. Importantly, the participants began to assemble common issues for future work that were clustered into three broad areas:
- Identifying the key components of PHR
- Making the case for PHR
- Creating shared resources
These core areas came to serve as the foundations for the formation of the first three Action Groups. Action Group Coordinators were identified and initial work plans for the coming year were formulated.
To support the work of the Action Groups the structure proposed by the founding institutions was agreed up. The Central Office will be in Berlin, initially located at the WZB, then moving to the Catholic University for Applied Sciences Berlin. The Central Office will be supported by an Executive Committee composed of the founding institutions and a Central Working Group including the Executive Committee and the Action Group Coordinators. The most important result of the first annual meeting was the affirmation of the goals and objectives as envisioned by the founding institutions and the strong desire to work on concrete issues which have relevance across international and cultural boundaries.