Community-Engaged Research: A Path for Occupational Science in the Changing University Landscape

In this paper, we highlight community-engaged research (CER) as an anchor for occupational science within the shifting American academy. Specific changes in the relationship of research funding, university priorities, and the discipline's aims provide a rich context for discussion. We define CER along a continuum and note its relation to current research approaches and funding priorities. We discuss the benefits and barriers of CER, focusing particularly on forces that drive and legitimize academic disciplines and their research. We suggest that recent developments in American higher education create a space for occupational science to produce legitimate, important, and interdisciplinary CER. Taking a cue from anthropology, we consider the ways in which occupational science may be “in use” within and outside academe via CER and chart a possible future path for the American arm of the discipline. We culminate by posing questions to continue this important discussion.