Community-driven design research: Restructuring research partnerships among universities and Indigenous communities

Informed by the rich methodological work around humanizing and community-based research, this article unpacks our journey of understanding and conceptualizing community-driven design research in partnership with Tribal Nations. Through a multi-year critical ethnographic approach, we identified four pivots necessary to enact community-driven design research that each require a shift in current research infrastructure and systems, especially those located within universities. The pivots include shifting from power and equity to Tribal sovereignty and self-determination, from ownership to stewardship, from objectivity to relationality, and from product to process. Each pivot is an invitation to researchers to build and (re)build infrastructure that aligns with the values of community-driven design research. We join qualitative researchers who seek to center values in research by specifically discussing how this move toward community values demands a restructuring of the very foundation on which our research is built.