Performative Community Authority Produces Reputational Risk

We’d just finished dinner, and one of the leaders of the initiative had just finished opening remarks for the evening. The institution launched a community-engaged research initiative, and this was the first convening. The next part of the program was a tour of the institution. As we walked through the halls of the institution, a community member and I started chatting. They slipped into Spanish while talking to me. The next day, my supervisor and I reflected on the convening. She shared my observation that members of the community engaged in quite a bit of casual conversation with me.

A key part of this initiative was the use of an ad hoc community committee that would advise on the institution as the research progressed. The committee included academics, culture workers, and corporate people. The committee would be convened regularly to solicit its feedback, but it held no formal decision-making authority. The committee could not force the institution to redirect the research if it became harmful, nor could it override the institution’s conduct during data collection. The committee was expected to participate, not share governing power.

I was the only internal Latina staff member at the convening that night. I was a researcher at the institution, but I wasn’t assigned to this initiative—I was there to shadow the process. The lead researcher was white. And they weren’t present that night. Community members connected with me, and my presence offered the initiative informal legitimacy. The institution viewed our connection as interpersonal and incidental. As the initiative went on, community members became less engaged, despite receiving payment to serve on the committee. Ultimately, I left the institution.

When informal interlocutors leave an institution, it loses access to research partners that help it advance its institutional priorities. The institution incurs reputational risk. Performative community authority weakens institutional legitimacy and accountability.

Research governance that assigns formal, specific authority to community members over high-stakes research initiatives produces longer-term strategic advantages by embedding institutional legitimacy and accountability to the community the research is about.

Research governance is a leadership function that is formally contracted before an initiative launches.