The Politics of Community: Negotiation and Consultation in Research on Women’s Health

In this article, we discuss the ethical positions adopted within universities, by communities and by research funding agencies to negotiate the roles of academics and others in conducting research, identifying mechanisms for community involvement, establishing ongoing consultative procedures, and clarifying areas for enquiry. Within the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health, we have adopted different strategies with the various immigrant and Indigenous communities with whom we work. We comment on the difficulties of consultation for this study, given community frustration with government inertia regarding known health problems and given people's skepticism of the value of research. Our varied and evolving relationships with study communities have been influenced by the politics of research, the funding of health programs, the political identity of different communities, and the positioning of research and subject communities.