This was the central message of a masterclass delivered by medical anthropologist Dr Anna Versfeld at Nelson Mandela University, where postgraduate students and emerging researchers were challenged to think critically about the relationship between research, power and social change.
Hosted by the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University’s Council Chambers, the masterclass explored engaged research as an approach to producing research that is relevant, equitable and trustworthy.
Dr Anna Versfeld, Simangaliso Mashego (Anthropology & Sociology lecturer), Dr Denver Davids Department (Head of Anthropology & Sociology Department), Babalwa Mahanjana (Anthropology & Sociology) and Lavita Nuvunga (Masterclass programme director and History and Political Studies lecturer).
Drawing on nearly two decades of experience working with communities and other stakeholders across health and social research contexts, Dr Versfeld introduced engaged research as an approach that places collaboration, power-sharing and lived experience at the centre of the research process.
“Engaged research is an approach to research that involves working collaboratively with the people affected by, or who have an interest in that research. It seeks to embed stakeholder perspectives across the research lifecycle,” she said.
For Dr Versfeld, engaged research is more than a methodology. It is an ethos grounded in care, relationships and an awareness of power. It recognises that knowledge is co-created and that people affected by research should be recognised as knowledge holders rather than merely as sources of data.
“How research is done, who shapes it, whose voices are included and what values guide it are as important as the results,” she said.
The masterclass repeatedly returned to the question: whose knowledge matters? This invited participants to interrogate assumptions about who is considered an expert and what counts as evidence, while highlighting the value of lived experience and multiple ways of knowing.
The masterclass also explored the unintentional consequences of research. Dr Versfeld cautioned that research which does not pay attention to justice, context and power dynamics can reproduce inequalities and perpetuate harm.
Engaged research, she argued, can strengthen relationships between researchers, communities and practitioners, while increasing the likelihood that research findings will be taken up and acted upon.
“People are more likely to act on research they have shaped as meaningful to their lives rather than if you come in and provide information,” said Dr Versfeld.
The masterclass also explored the practical challenges of engaged research within academic institutions. Ethics protocols, funding structures, timelines and institutional system and its limitations to the flexibility required for genuine collaboration.
While acknowledging that full co-production can be difficult to achieve, Dr Versfeld stressed that engaged research does not have to be perfect to be valuable. The challenge, she said, is to pursue the most meaningful engagement possible within the constraints of each research context.
The masterclass ultimately positioned engaged research as a way of rethinking the purpose and practice of scholarship, not simply as a means of producing knowledge, but as a way of ensuring that knowledge is relevant, equitable, trustworthy and capable of contributing to meaningful change.