A research project identified the challenges and benefits of collaborative research between extension agents and researchers. Its methodology was a critical review of the collaborative research approach used in a case study examining the usefulness of social capital in promoting rural landscape sustainability in two counties in the Hudson River Valley, New York. There were several challenges to the collaboration that related directly to the dialogical process. The tension and productivity of the dialogue between research and extension partners were illustrated by these challenges: ensuring that collaboration would be useful to both parties so that both would participate; language; time; focus; and political costs. The project illustrated the value of research/extension collaborations. Although important challenges of perspective, communication, power, and divergent professional needs had to be overcome, the benefits of such collaborative research were dramatic. The project not only demonstrated the relevance of social capital theory to extension practice but also used insights from practice to further elaborate social capital theory. By bringing community development practitioners into collaboration with university-based researchers, each gained something of the perspective of the other. (Contains 20 references.) (YLB)