Hi Budd,

I'm loooking forward to what comes out of this debate, but wanted to seek clarity what is meant by 'community' in the context of this debate.

It is quite common in the UK, for example, to use the word community as a catch-all term to refer to third sector organisations. In this type of usage, the debate may miss two significant sets of actors;

First: 'citizens', in effect the individuals who make up communities. Incredibly diverse, increasingly virtual or thematic as opposed to traditional geographic or neighbourhood conceptions;

Second: Local Governemnt and Public Agencies, which can provide expertise, resources and, crucially practice and policy environments in which researchers can collect and analyse data.

Best regards,

Peter