Making sense of community-led place-based research

This perspective introduces a new experiment in community-led place-based research that is taking off in the United Kingdom. The article provides the background and rationale for funding nine independent Community Research Networks for up to £1 million each, for up to 5 years. This, in turn, raises questions about how human geographers might respond to this development and the implications for disciplinary thought and practice. The article explores: (1) the implications for understanding the place of place in research and knowledge production and (2) a series of questions about community-led place-based research in practice. The latter raises questions about: (i) community engagement; (ii) setting the research agenda; (iii) data sovereignty and epistemic authority; and (iv) the role of academic researchers.