Welcome to the Research for Social Change Lab.

We’re a community-engaged research collective in pursuit of justice and equity in Nogojiwanong/Peterborough.

With community partners, we design and execute research projects that generate actionable knowledge and creative solutions to problems such as homelessness, social exclusion and poverty.

By prioritizing community interests and striving to learn from and be accountable to lived expertise, we aim to politicize knowledge production and mobilize university resources for social change.

The Research for Social Change Lab is based at Trent University in Nogojiwanong/Peterborough, on the traditional territory of the Michi Saagiig First Nations.

More about us

Institutional Ethnography Reading Group

Institutional ethnography (or IE) is an approach to social science research that begins with people's experiences rather than a theoretical category or abstract preoccupation. The idea is to figure out how people's experiences are connected to the experiences of people elsewhere. In IE we recognize that the things people do take time and energy and so we refer to these "doings" as people's work. We try to understand how the work someone is doing in one context (e.g., work to get access to resources) is connected to, and shaped by, work that is happening in other places (e.g., sites where people decide who is eligible for the resources someone is seeking).

Lab News

News and Updates
We’re on Instagram.
We’re on Instagram.
Cross-Sectoral Roadmap for Change: Addressing Homelessness in Peterborough/Nogojiwanong</span>
Cross-Sectoral Roadmap for Change: Addressing Homelessness in Peterborough/Nogojiwanong
ZINE: “Data Dreams and Desires - Found Poetry”
ZINE: “Data Dreams and Desires - Found Poetry”

Our Projects

  • Coordinated Access Review

    We’re engaging people with lived experience, frontline workers, system managers, and other stakeholders in a frank and inclusive discussion about Peterborough’s homeless-serving system. What’s working? What’s not? How can we improve?

    United Way Peterborough & District and the Government of Canada’s Reaching Home program.

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  • Data Justice for Youth

    In this project, we’re mapping the complex data systems, data processes and data policies that govern young people’s trajectories into and out of homelessness.

    Our goal? To make these systems more transparent, more user-friendly and more equitable.

    Jointly funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and Making the Shift Youth Homelessness Social Innovation Lab.

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  • Building From Experience #2: Investigating Shelter (In)Justice in Peterborough

    As Peterborough’s housing and homelessness crisis intensifies, our Building From Experience research team is documenting the rules and procedures that dictate how housing and shelter resources are distributed in Peterborough.

    Our goal? To read these rules and procedures in the context of our legislated obligation to realize the progressive right to housing. Are human rights being respected in Peterborough? Can we do better?

    With funding from the Government of Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

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  • Building From Experience #1: Youth Action Research Revolution

    This participatory research project supported the formation of the Youth Action Research Revolution (YARR), a group of young researchers with experience of homelessness in Montreal.

    YARR performed ethnographic research among street-involved youth to determine how public institutions such as schools, hospitals and jails exacerbate young people’s housing struggles — and how these institutions can do better.

    With funding from the Government of Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

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  • Dorothy Smith Open School

    Two days of inquiry, reflection, and collaborative learning focused on Institutional Ethnography, the sociology for people developed by Dorothy Smith

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  • In Their Own Words

    A participatory study to document everyday care work in Peterborough and learn how parents can be supported to raise healthy children.

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  • Peterborough Community Knowledge Network

    We’re collaborating to develop community-driven data collection initiatives to address the needs of local organizations.

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Our Team