Engaged acclimatization: Towards responsible community-based participatory research in Nunavut

• Published in: The Canadian geographer 2012-06, Vol.56 (2), p.211-230
• Main Authors: Grimwood, Bryan S. R., Doubleday, Nancy C., Ljubicic, Gita J., Donaldson, Shawn G., Blangy, Sylvie
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: acclimatation engagée; Acclimatization; Activism; Adjustment (Psychology); Analysis; Bgi / Prodig; Canada; Community; Community involvement; Community participation; community-based participatory research; Community-based research; Endogenous; engaged acclimatization; Ethics; Ethnographic research; Field work; Fieldwork; Immersion; Indigenous peoples; Indigenous populations; Inuit; Learning; Methodology; Methods; méthodologie; Native North Americans; Nunavut; Participatory research; Partnerships; Photography; Professional and research organization. Deontology; recherche participative axée sur la collectivité; relations de recherche; Research methodology; Research partnerships; Research programs; Research projects; research relationships; Research scientists; Sketches; Social sciences; Submerging; Terrain; The practice of geography; travaux sur le terrain
• ISSN: 0008-3658; 1541-0064
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1541-0064.2012.00416.x

In this article, we consider the formation of responsible research relationships with Inuit communities from an “outsider” researcher perspective. Cautious not to prescribe what counts as responsible, we draw on research experiences in several Nunavut communities to introduce and explain “engaged acclimatization.” This neologism refers to embodied and relational methodological processes for fostering responsible research partnerships, and is inspired by the significance of preliminary fieldwork in orienting the lead author's doctoral thesis. As a complement to community‐based participatory methodologies, engaged acclimatization facilitates endogenous research by enacting ethics as a lived experience, initiating and nurturing relationships as a central component of research, and centring methods on circumstances within participating communities. After we locate engaged acclimatization within resonant literature and details of interrelated research projects, our article sketches out four aspects of engaged acclimatization: crafting relations, learning, immersion, and activism. In our discussion of each, we integrate specific insights derived from field notes, observations, photographs, critical reflections, and literature that have brought us to this understanding. The four aspects provide conceptual and methodological tools for readers to apply in the contexts of their own research programs or in guidelines for establishing partnerships with Inuit or Aboriginal communities. The value of this article lies in the extent to which it encourages readers to situate engaged acclimatization in their own research and further develop it as a process. L’acclimatation engagée : Vers une recherche responsable et axée sur la collectivité au Nunavut  Cet article aborde la question de l’établissement de relations responsables de recherche avec les collectivités inuites du point de vue du chercheur «étranger». Des recherches menées dans plusieurs collectivités du Nunavut servent de base à la définition de ce que nous appelons «acclimatation engagée», en se gardant de prescrire d’emblée ce qui peut être considéré comme responsable. Ce néologisme renvoie à une démarche méthodologique incarnée et relationnelle par laquelle des relations responsables de recherche peuvent émerger. Ce terme découle d’ailleurs des résultats importants issus des premiers travaux sur le terrain menés dans le cadre de la recherche doctorale de l’auteur principal. L’acclimatation engagée se greffe aux