Re-imagining engaged scholarship in South Africa

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This article represents a constructive disruption of the extant habits of mind associated with community engagement in South Africa. The constructive disruption is developed by applying a critical realist method placing emphasis on engaged transdisciplinary knowledge co-production processes. The argument that is developed suggests two plausible disruptions. The first disruption argues that it is possible to consider a second order form of methodological decision making using a concept labelled ‘critical epistemological selectivity’ as a mechanism to increase the armamentarium of engaged, transdisciplinary scholarship. The second disruption focuses on the real-world utility of the current ‘spirit’ of engagement – ‘social justice’ – in the face of increasingly complex global challenges. The article concludes by suggesting that second and third order perspectives could contribute to a more reflexive form of engaged scholarship that may be of benefit to both academe and its neighbouring communities.