Research 101: Manifesto for Ethical Research in the DTES

The Downtown Eastside (DTES) of Vancouver is a heavily-researched neighborhood. Research 101 was a series of six weekly workshops (February to April 2018) brought together to discuss research and ethics in the DTES. A group of 6 to 13 representatives from several DTES organizations and SFU researchers, met each week to discuss experiences with research in the past, the wider context of research in the DTES, and community expectations for more ethical research practice.

This work resulted in a co-created “manifesto” for ethical research in the Downtown Eastside. An outline of the Research 101 workshops is available here and a more detailed outline of weekly workshops is available on request from Scott Neufeld (sdn2@sfu.ca). Find out more about the wider impact of the |manifesto and the ongoing work of DTES residents through the Community Ethics Research Workshop (CREW) here. This website includes many important resources and a short documentary about research in the DTES form the perspective of those who live what is being researched.

Access the Resource

PDF of the hard copy of the manifesto

On May 11, SFPIRG was delighted to host Scott Nuefeld and Nicolas Crier to launch a series on research ethics in partnership with the SFU Graduate Student Society. A link to the audio recording and transcript can be found here. A forthcoming book chapter on how the work has grown since Research 101 can be found here.

SFPIRG has endorsed the Research 101 Manifesto, and provided facilitation support at the onset of the project. We’re thrilled to be able to support initiatives like this! SFPIRG encourages all researchers who want to work with folks in the DTES to use this resource prior to beginning any research.

“I have been very grateful for the insights and generosity of SFPIRG (and specifically their Director of Research & Education) in helping me to prepare to facilitate the series of workshops on community research ethics in the DTES (“Research 101″) which led to the collaborative development of this Manifesto. Their experience coordinating the Action Research Exchange program at SFPIRG (currently on hiatus), and facilitating countless workshops was an invaluable resource I drew on to help me think through the complexities of the community workshops in a way that enabled them to be as useful and collaborative as possible. I am so grateful for SFPIRG’s support with this preparation, and am proud to name them as a partner in the Research 101 project.” – Scott Neufeld

Research 101 and related work receives ongoing financial and administrative support from SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement, the UBC Learning ExchangeHives for HumanitySFU’s Community Engagement Initiative and SFU’s Community Engaged Research Initiative.