The third sphere: Reconceptualising allyship in community-based participatory research praxis

ABSTRACT A central tenet in the conduct of community-based participatory research is the establishment of an allyship between researchers and other actors, a relation that ideally should be reciprocal in nature. In theory, true allyship would stand for a mutual search for understanding and potential transformation of life circumstances through investigation and argumentation, in the absence of coercive force or preset boundaries. However, in practice, researchers often behave as privileged guests that enter a particular local reality at predefined moments in time and leave when they are satisfied with what they got. We critically reflected on the challenge of developing equitable and sustainable relationships that cut across time-space dimensions of collective engagement and action in community-based research. We offer a critique of the project-based logic of participatory research practice and how this may unwittingly affirm actions that work against the concept of true allyship. We advocate for the creation of a ‘third sphere’ that unfolds itself as an experimental laboratory for constructive and disruptive thought, wherein every stakeholder is equally subjected to the centripetal force of meeting each other in the middle. This increases the likelihood that unanticipated and new ways of thinking and acting will emerge from the collective.