Social impact, defined as an effect on society, culture, quality of life,community services, or public policy beyond academia, is widelyconsidered as a relevant requirement for scientific research, especiallyin the field of health care. Traditionally, in health research, the processof knowledge transfer is rather linear and one-sided and has notrecognized and integrated the expertise of practitioners and thosewho use services. This can lead to discrimination or disqualification ofknowledge and epistemic injustice. Epidemic injustice is a situationwherein certain kinds of knowers and knowledge are not takenseriously into account to define a situation. The purpose of our articleis to explore how health researchers can achieve social impact for awide audience, involving them in a non-linear process of joint learningon urgent problems recognized by the various stakeholders in publichealth. In participatory health research impact is not preordained byone group of stakeholders, but the result of a process of reflectionand dialog with multiple stakeholders on what counts as valuableoutcomes. This knowledge mobilization and winding pathwayembarked upon during such research have the potential for impactalong the way as opposed to the expectation that impact will occurmerely at the end of a research project. We will discuss and illustratethe merits of taking a negotiated, discursive and flexible pathway inthe area of community-based health promotion.
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