Universities and Community Engagement: Capacity-building and empowerment of excluded communities
Lynne Humphrey (Newcastle University)
Abstract
There is increasing pressure on Universities to incorporate excluded communities within their target beneficiaries, both in terms of widening access to learning opportunities and the development of community-oriented service activities (Brisbin and Hunter, 2003). The implication being that engagement with such communities can develop social capital (Ibid). Community engagement has thus become common currency in University marketing and policy but how exactly is such engagement being defined, practised and supported by HEIs? In a context of marketisation the focus of ‘community engagement’ is more likely to be on business and economically rewarding collaborations. At the same time widening access and participation programmes prioritise the social mobility of the individual, encouraging talent within disadvantaged communities to leave once qualified. Our research is looking to refocus attention on engagement in and with excluded communities. In particular, to identify how Universities are transferring their knowledge and expertise through forms of community engagement that help address problems of social exclusion and community development.
Focusing on Scotland, a mapping exercise will reveal the diversity of institutional responses shaping engagement by and interaction with excluded communities. Key trends and barriers will be highlighted as well as institutional drivers, mainstreaming and strategy. The findings of in-depth interviews and participatory observation of a flagship community project will be summarised to reveal the application of University theory in practice. Of concern will be the inter-organisational relations between University and communities as well as any identified benefits in terms of both individual progress and wider social capital. In particular, utilising the notion of communities of practice (Wenger, 1998) can such forms of collaboration increase individual and collective capacity and empowerment?
