Community-Engaged Scholarship and Its Implications for Public Sociology and the Discipline

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article provides an overview of research, practice, and theory in community-engaged scholarship as a means to expand our understanding of public sociology and its broader implications for sociology as a discipline. We begin with an overview of community-engaged scholarship and how it is related to and distinct from public sociology. Five main principles of community-engaged work are highlighted: (1) reciprocity and mutual benefit; (2) ethics and knowledge production; (3) social action and change, typically from a social justice orientation; (4) multidisciplinary and mixed methods approaches; and (5) varied types of organizational partners. We elaborate these principles using illustrations from the Spivack-Community Action Research Initiative (CARI) grants funded by the American Sociological Association, which demonstrate the range of social problems that are addressed with community engagement. We conclude by delineating the importance of engagement for the ongoing development and revitalization of sociology and the institutional challenges that must be overcome for this approach to thrive in the discipline.