PEER RESEARCH: INSIGHTS FROM THE FIELD

Peer research is a form of collaborative, participatory inquiry which involves members of a particular group, network or community carrying out research with other people like themselves, participating directly in the research by joining the project team as paid co-researchers. Peer research aims at creating bridges between academic researchers and local people, considering worldviews and cultural values of the groups with whom the research is undertaken, sharing their perspectives and expertise. Its main purpose is to produce more inclusive forms of knowledge and to develop less ‘extractive’ research models. The chapter offers a reflection on the complex, fluid, and dynamic nature of peer research, exploring the possibilities opened by this approach as well as the tensions and challenges which can arise, particularly in terms of power asymmetries, expectations, outcomes, and ethics.