Researching Compassionate Communities from an interdisciplinary perspective

Compassionate Communities are places and environments in which people, networks and institutions actively work together and are empowered to improve the circumstances, health, and well-being of those facing serious illness, death, dying and loss. The study of their development, implementation and evaluation requires an interdisciplinary research approach that has hitherto been lacking. In 2020, eight research groups from four faculties at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) united in the interdisciplinary Compassionate Communities Centre of Expertise (COCO) to investigate Compassionate Communities. This paper describes the first results of COCO; (1) an interdisciplinary mode of collaboration, (2) a shared conceptual understanding and definition of Compassionate Communities, and (3) a shared research agenda on Compassionate Communities.