Abstract
We use a relational understanding of power to analyze power dynamics at the institutional and interpersonal levels in our multi-year Co-Education/Co-Research (CORE) partnership between Tufts University Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning (UEP) and Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI). Power in community-university partnerships is often examined only at the institutional level, conceiving of power as a resource to be balanced and shared. Indeed, CORE has advanced institutional shifts through co-governance, equitable funding, co-production of curriculum and cross-flow of people. While institutional policies and practices are critical, they alone do not transform deep-seated hierarchies that value university knowledge, practices and people over community. To understand how intertwined interpersonal and institutional practices can reproduce or transform these cultural and ideological dynamics, we use a relational approach, understanding that power flows in and through all relations. As community members, students and faculty, we reflect on the contradictions we have encountered in CORE. We examine how we reinforce the dominance of academic over community knowledge, even as we leverage institutional power to further community goals. These tensions can be opportunities for shifting, disrupting and transforming towards more equitable relations, but they can also reproduce and reinforce the status quo. Through reflective practice and a relational ethic of care, we can try to recognize when we might be shifting power relations and when we might be reproducing them. This is messy work that requires a lot of communication, trust, reflection and time. A relational approach to power provides hope that we can be part of the change we seek in all of our relations, every day. And it reminds us that no matter what we have institutionalised or encoded, our individual beings, organizations and communities are always in a process of becoming.
Highlights
Community-university partnerships (CUPs) often aim to address societal injustices, but in practice are challenged by the same unequal power relations they seek to confront
We use a relational understanding of power to analyse power dynamics at the institutional and interpersonal levels in our multi-y ear Co-E ducation/Co-R esearch (CORE) partnership between Tufts University Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning (UEP) and Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI)
In Penn’s case, what if he had worked with Greater Boston Community Land Trust Network (GBCLTN) members to develop a collaborative presentation, weaving in stories of their experiences in community land trust (CLT)? What if Zoë had brought her concern about the lack of time to the group to decide collectively on an adjustment and/or reflect on how a ‘sense of urgency’ is a characteristic of white supremacy culture? What if Joceline had asked board members what they knew about the collaboration with Tufts and taken the time to explain the history? These are just some of the ways that we could have acted differently to change some of the power dynamics in the moment
Summary
Well-documented barriers to more equitable CUPs include unequal sharing of resources, forcing community practice into short-term academic calendars and prioritising university benefits over community impact Participants often address these barriers by changing institutional policies and practices to shift power, where power is conceptualised as a resource that universities typically have more of than community partners. Institutional shifts alone do not necessarily lead to transformation of deep-s eated hierarchies of knowledge and cultures that value university knowledge, practices and people over community. Both universities and community-based organisations are embedded in, and part of, reproducing systems of oppression. We unpack and reflect on the tensions – discursive frictions – that we encountered and conclude with thoughts on how CORE can further transform power relations and lessons learned
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