Presentation
Community-Engaged Operations Research: Localized Interventions, Appropriate Methods, Social Impact
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Operations Research Center, IAP Seminar, "Operations Research for Social Good”
(2018)
Abstract
Community-engaged operations research is an extension of multiple OR/MS traditions to support participatory research, localized impact and social change. It applies critical thinking, evidence-based policy analysis, community participation and decision modeling to local interventions. It emphasizes the needs, voices and values of disadvantaged and marginalized populations. It rests on a foundation of meaningful engagement with communities. Through a survey of current scholarship in two complementary areas of inquiry, ‘community operational research’ (referring to work by primarily European researchers) and ‘community-based operations research’ (referring to work by primarily American researchers), I develop principles for community-engaged OR, present critical questions that represent opportunities to expand the impact of this work, and discuss current projects whose methods and applications have the potential to enrich research and practice in operations research, management science and analytics.
Keywords
- Community operational research,
- community-based operations research,
- community-engaged operations research,
- multimethodology,
- soft or,
- problem structuring methods
Disciplines
Publication Date
January 29, 2018
Location
Cambridge, MA
Citation Information
Michael P Johnson. "Community-Engaged Operations Research: Localized Interventions, Appropriate Methods, Social Impact" Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Operations Research Center, IAP Seminar, "Operations Research for Social Good” (2018) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/michael_johnson/96/