Community Engagement Practices Research Articles

Assessing nature-based solutions for transformative change

Assessing nature-based solutions for transformative change

Revisiting the High John experiment through a contemporary lens

In 1967, the University of Maryland’s School of Library and Information Services created a public library in Prince George’s County, Maryland, named the High John Experiment, to give Librarianship and Information Science students experience serving disadvantaged communities and to discover new methods to better serve these communities. From the creation of High John to the present day, University of Maryland publications and unaffiliated works credit High John as a groundbreaking experiment that propelled interests in diversity and inclusion in public libraries. High John’s creators published a 73 paged report for the United States’ Office of Education, accompanied by published articles, that confirms a violation of ethics toward the community High John served. The community was not involved in the implementation or planning of the library and many of the services and materials the library offered were based on prejudiced assumptions instead of community input or research. Although High John garnered supporters, the validity and ethicality behind High John’s intent and methods were called into question during the experiment. The controversy led to debates within the field that resulted in conversations about Librarianship and Information Science pedagogy and appropriate methods in outreach and community engagement for disadvantaged communities. Now that the passionately fueled debates on High John have ceased, the experiment is a distant memory. Although this experiment led to debates about diversity, inclusion, and equity in information access within the United States, this experiment is relevant to information readers on a global scale. Because Librarianship and Information Science has a history rooted in elitism and oppression worldwide, High John warrants further exposure and examination from a diverse pool of contemporary perspectives. Through the application of modern community outreach and engagement practices, this article builds on a critical historical analysis of the experiment and argues High John failed in its mission and violated the community’s trust that it purported to serve.

Social License to Operate in Crowdfunding Campaigns

Organizations and individuals need to engage their communities to gain the social license to operate (SLO). In crowdfunding, SLO is reflected in funding by the members of communities of interest around crowdfunding campaigns. Thus campaign creators’ success relies on obtaining SLO from their communities. This article examines how crowdfunding campaign creators engage their communities to gain and maintain SLO to secure funding for their campaigns. Content analysis of 68 successful and unsuccessful Kickstarter campaigns shows how successful campaign creators build their communities by the use of weak ties and have abundant relational and episodic engagement with their communities to obtain SLO. The results also show how successful campaign creators practice dialogic engagement to maintain their SLO over time. This study expands public relations to crowdfunding by framing crowdfunding as a community engagement practice and operationalizing SLO as tangible funding.

Applying a Practice Lens to Local Government Climate Change Governance: Rethinking Community Engagement Practices

Governments commit substantial time and resources engaging individuals and households to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. These approaches, based largely upon behaviour change theories, have been criticised for their limited reach and effectiveness by practice theorists who have offered an alternative approach, broadening the focus beyond individuals. While practice theory has provided valuable insights into the energy consuming activities of households it has gained limited traction as a way to analyse and inform government practices and policy making. We address this by applying a practice lens to climate change community engagement practices performed by Australian local governments. Drawing on 29 interviews with practitioners and analysis of 37 Australian local government climate strategies, we examine the bundle of practices that constitute climate change community engagement: recruitment, engagement and evaluation. We consider how these practices are situated vis-a-vis other climate governance practices (regulation, service delivery, infrastructure provision and advocacy) as well as internal local government processes. Using a practice lens reveals the weaknesses in current engagement approaches which we contend are limiting efficacy. We draw upon Spurling et al.’s conceptualisation of re-crafting, re-integrating and substituting practices to consider how climate change community engagement practices might be reconfigured to improve their effectiveness.

Reflections on the conceptualisation and practices of community engagement as a core function of universities

The world saw the “human” side of universities during the Covid-19 pandemic as universities across the globe were at the forefront of efforts to control the spread of the Coronavirus, and to explore means of making the human population acquire immunity against the virulent disease. This article contends that, although this appeared as unusual, the universities were simply fulfilling their obligation to humanity because the raison d’être of universities includes being of service to society. Therefore, if they are unable to prevent crises from setting in, they should at least be at the forefront of efforts to combat the crises, and mitigate their effects on people. The article seeks to set the scene for the collection of articles that follow in this special issue of the South African Journal of Higher Education (SAJHE) on the theme of community engagement as a core function for universities. It argues that universities have social responsibility, and they should therefore serve as anchors of towns and regions; as engines of development in their respective geographical areas; and as champions of social causes. It presents and discusses the concepts and practices of community engagement that are critical to understanding the arguments and counterarguments in the articles that follow. These include the relationship between community engagement, on the one hand, and transformation of higher education as well as decolonisation of knowledge and ways of knowing, on the other. The article also reflects on the state of community engagement in universities in South Africa, and explains that it is mostly regarded as a stepchild because it is not valued, funded or supported in the same way as the other two core functions of teaching and learning, and research and innovation. The article also cautions against the use of rhetoric to romanticise community engagement when the projects on the ground leave much to be desired, and with not potential to make a difference to society.

Teaching Paradise Lost: Radical Contingency, Comparative Studies, and Community Engagement

Teaching Paradise Lost:Radical Contingency, Comparative Studies, and Community Engagement W. Scott Howard (bio) This essay connects a reading of Paradise Lost to an exhortation for the field of Milton studies, reflects upon my recent pedagogic activities at the University of Denver, and offers suggestions for teaching that emphasize comparative studies and community engagement.1 My work here derives from my teaching at all levels (from first-year undergraduates to doctoral students) at the dynamic intersections of my community's contiguous cohorts. My argument is this: Paradise Lost is a work of radical contingency beyond Milton's control that likewise exceeds our best efforts to grasp the whole poem, thereby engendering an open work in a vital field of endless variations upon the text's history of adaptation, interpretation, and production. Milton scholars and early modernists should therefore subordinate their desires to control the text (via established critical methods) to the work's generative legacy of artistic collaborations (among authors, editors, musicians, painters and printers, translators and typographers, et al.). Comparative studies across disciplines may be energized in meaningful ways for twenty-first-century students through community-engaged practices that amplify the poem's inherent openness to diversity, multimodality, and transferrable skills. We should celebrate the epic's living legacy through [End Page 231] spontaneous acts of open-access knowledge sharing and experiential learning that could be transformational for the path forward for literary studies. Within the limited scope of this essay's appearance in this cluster, my focus for comparative studies and community engagement will concern literary adaptations of Paradise Lost with particular emphasis given to the multimedia fields of book arts and letterpress printing. ________ Great works of literary art are so much greater than any individual or collective work of scholarship. Indeed, such classics are more than the sum of their parts at every moment in their journeys through time: from their engagements with their source materials and historical moments to their processes of inspiration, composition, revision, production, distribution, exchange, adaptation, interpretation, remediation, and translation.2 Such texts are beyond the control of their authors and audiences because their complexities escape capture and conversion; such classics are vibrant, open works that "display an intrinsic mobility, a kaleidoscopic capacity to suggest themselves in constantly renewed aspects."3 We should embrace this vital spirit of the open work's radical contingency. By radical, I mean a fundamental concern for and critique of the linguistic roots of reality; by contingency, I mean chance affinities among materials and methods that are neither designed nor foreseen—yet still possible due to either present or absent accidents, conditions, or forces. Paradise Lost is certainly intricate, but it is not "designed like a complex clock."4 Paradise Lost is a poem of baroque asymmetrical structures and signal escapes engendered by numerous discontinuities within and across the work's individual books as well as among the many paratexts added to the poem after the first three issues of the 1667 ten-book first edition.5 Considering these countless edits, revisions, and chance variables involved in the epic's journey from the 1667 edition to the 1674 twelve-book second edition, we should read, discuss, and teach Paradise Lost as a work of radical contingency that emerges from collaborative and collective efforts, including the text's dictation, transcription, revision, and preparation for printing and distribution, as William Poole's Milton and the Making of Paradise Lost (2017) thoroughly demonstrates. We should celebrate the work's multimodal legacy in the spirit of Blake's illuminated poem that strives to correct Milton's vision by breaking apart his overdetermined selfhood.6 Numerous kindred literary adaptations of Paradise Lost reimagine and refashion the poem's materials and methods for modern audiences, such as Erin Shields's Paradise Lost (2018); Danny Snelson's RADIOS (2016); Pablo Auladell's Paradise Lost [End Page 232] (2014); Ronald Johnson's RADI OS (1977); and John Collier's Milton's Paradise Lost: Screenplay for Cinema of the Mind (1973), just to name a few.7 Milton's paradoxical refrain, "know to know no more," underscores these principles and reflections in ways that exceed ready explanations—notwithstanding the best efforts of countless editors and scholars...

On Responses of Higher Education and Training With(in) Society Through Research, Teaching, and Community Engagement

This article presents a trend analysis of the directions, nuances, and theoretical developments in community engagement (CE) practices in higher education and training (HET) environments in South Africa since 1994. It focuses on the nexus of research, teaching and learning, and community engagement. The article identifies specific associations of CE with core HET activities, illustrating how this integrated approach has brought about positive change. The research was conducted in three phases. In Phase I, purposeful sampling was used to identify the published work of leading scholars in South Africa who had engaged with the call for adopting a more transformative and collaborative approach to research such that the very act of academically engaging with(in) community became an educationally visionary act. In Phase II, the scope of the sampling was broadened to include research in multiple disciplines. In the third phase, the sampling was broadened chronologically to include research since the 1990s, and limited to the social sciences in order to conduct a trend analysis that considered historical context and growth directions in CE in the social sciences. The discussion presents an analysis of trends that emanated from research responses to CE by HET.

Age-Friendly University Campus Inventory

An increasing number of older adults are turning to educational institutions to provide career training, intellectual stimulation and social interaction. Response to the educational needs and interests of this emerging population calls for new opportunities and innovative practices of teaching, research, and community engagement that colleges and universities are poised to offer. In Summer 2018, CSULB became the third university in California to be designated an Age-Friendly University. This study aimed to identify strengths and opportunities for growth at CSULB as related to each of the 10 Age-Friendly University principles. This study is part of a larger, national study conducted by researchers from UMass, Boston. Interviewees were asked to indicate on the Campus Inventory survey tool the activities and programs offered by the university. Data were collected from CSULB administrators through email after a phone introduction and entered into an Excel document for analysis using qualitative methods. Results provided a clear overview of the types of activities and programs available to older adult students and guided the identification of gaps in services, from the perspective of administrators on campus. The results of this CSULB survey will be compared with results from several AFU campuses across the United States. Additionally, results will be compared with a future Campus Climate survey, which will assess the age-friendliness of CSULB from the perspectives of faculty, students and community members.

Anna Gaynutdinova, Inclusion vs. Exclusion. Overcoming Undemocratic Contextual Issues in Integrating Communities to Heritage Management and Preservation

The article presents the retrospective of various initiatives of engaging local communities in heritage conservation and management taking place in Russia over the last decades. It gives the analysis of their sources, locations and developments in the light of contextual issues of the contemporary social and political circumstances and their influence to the conservation field. It also represents the summary of more than 50 years-long practice of local community engagement in the conservation of WH property “Cultural and Historic Ensemble of the Solovetsky Islands” from the period before it was designated till present.

Putting the “Community” in College and University Classrooms: Research‐Based Teaching Practices in Service‐Learning and Community Engagement

AbstractThis chapter highlights community building as a pedagogical foundation for effective integration of service‐learning and community engagement practices in higher education.

The Donor-Driven Model and Financial Sustainability: A Case Study from Palestinian Non-Government Organizations

This study presents factors that encourage Palestinian NGOs to embrace financial sustainability employing modern ideologies that encompass community engagement, voluntarism, collaboration, and business-like practices in order to meet societal challenges. The study explores the reliance of Palestinian NGOs on external funds (donor-driven funds) and the environment impact of their attempts at financial sustainability. Data were gathered using semi-structured interviews with 22 NGOs in the West Bank and Gaza in 2019. The data were analyzed through thematic analysis using the computer software MAXQDA. Key findings were that Palestinian NGOs need to alleviate the dependency on a donor-driven model by functioning independently from donors’ agendas; and that Palestinian NGOs need to collaborate with each other to centralize their efforts and avoid fragmentation. Further, the Palestinian government needs to revisit the relevant laws to regulate the civil society sector and avoid competition between NGOs and private sector on the one hand, and NGOs and governmental institutions on the other hand.

Practicing Social Cohesion in the Dark: Diverse Processes and Missing Indicators in Forced Migration Contexts

Despite the large number of studies on social cohesion, research carried out in non-European, refugee and local contexts remains limited. This article provides a structured, focused comparison of social cohesion practices in new refugee hosting settings based on examples from Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan. The analysis reveals that social cohesion vision is implemented through peacebuilding, community engagement, and resilience building practices that aim at building safe, shared and empowered spaces respectively. In contrast to national policies with more immediate, tangible and standardized outcomes, local practices involve intercommunal, interactional, and future-oriented processes, which complicates the assessment of social cohesion through an indicator framework. Based on the findings, the article suggests (a) acknowledging context bound manifestations of social cohesion practices, (b) emphasizing social interactions at the local level as a crucial component of social cohesion processes, and (c) advancing research on the causal mechanisms of social cohesion as a long-term policy goal.

Community engagement approaches for Indigenous health research: recommendations based on an integrative review

ObjectiveCommunity engagement practices in Indigenous health research are promoted as a means of decolonising research, but there is no comprehensive synthesis of approaches in the literature. Our aim was to...

Structural coercion in the context of community engagement in global health research conducted in a low resource setting in Africa

BackgroundWhile community engagement is increasingly promoted in global health research to improve ethical research practice, it can sometimes coerce participation and thereby compromise ethical research. This paper seeks to discuss some of the ethical issues arising from community engagement in a low resource setting.MethodsA qualitative study design focusing on the engagement activities of three biomedical research projects as ethnographic case studies was used to gain in-depth understanding of community engagement as experienced by multiple stakeholders in Malawi. Data was collected through participant observation, 43 In-depth interviews and 17 focus group discussions with community leaders, research staff, community members and research participants. Thematic analysis was used to analyse and interpret the findings.ResultsThe results showed that structural coercion arose due to an interplay of factors pertaining to social-economic context, study design and power relations among research stakeholders. The involvement of community leaders, government stakeholders, and power inequalities among research stakeholders affected some participants’ ability to make autonomous decisions about research participation. These results have been presented under the themes of perception of research as development, research participants’ motivation to access individual benefits, the power of vernacular translations to influence research participation, and coercive power of leaders.ConclusionThe study identified ethical issues in community engagement practices pertaining to structural coercion. We conclude that community engagement alone did not address underlying structural inequalities to ensure adequate protection of communities. These results raise important questions on how to balance between engaging communities to improve research participation and ensure that informed consent is voluntarily given.

Standardized metrics can reveal region-specific opportunities in community engagement to aid recruitment in HIV prevention trials.

Good Participatory Practice (GPP) guidelines support and direct community engagement practices in biomedical HIV prevention trials, however no standardized metrics define the implementation and evaluation of these practices. Collaboratively, the Community Program staff of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) and the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) created a metric to describe, monitor, and evaluate one component of GPP, recruitment practices, in two HIV monoclonal Antibody Mediated Prevention (AMP) clinical trials, HVTN 703/HPTN 081 and HVTN 704/HPTN 085. Through consultation with community representatives from each clinical research site (hereafter "site(s)"), who made up the study Community Working Groups, recruitment strategy descriptors were developed for both trials to characterize responses to "How did you hear about the AMP study?" The Community Working Groups also helped to define and establish time points that were selected to allow comparisons across sites. Data were collected by 43 of 46 clinical research sites from January 1, 2017 to February 28, 2018. All 43 sites used multiple recruitment strategies successfully, but strategies varied by region. Globally, referrals was the most efficient and effective recruitment strategy as evidenced by the screening: enrollment ratio of 2.2:1 in Africa, and 2.1:1 in the Americas/Switzerland. Print materials were also valuable globally (3:1 Africa, 4.2:1 Americas/Switzerland). In Africa, in-person outreach was also quite effective (2.3:1) and led to the most enrollments (748 of 1186, 63%). In the Americas/Switzerland, outreach was also effective (2.6:1), but internet use resulted in the most screens (1893 of 4275, 44%) and enrollments (677 of 1531, 44%), compared to 12 of 2887 (0.4%) and 2 of 1204 (0.1%) in Africa, respectively. Standardized metrics and data collection aid meaningful comparisons of optimal community engagement methods for trial enrollment. Internet strategies had better success in the Americas/Switzerland than in sub-Saharan African countries. Data are essential in outreach staff efforts to improve screening-to-enrollment ratios. Because the effectiveness of recruitment strategies varies by region, it is critical that clinical research sites tailor community engagement and recruitment strategies to their local environment, and that they are supported with resources enabling use of a range of approaches.

Collaborative engagement of Hispanic communities in the planning, conducting, and dissemination of assistive technology research.

Community engagement (CE) is critical for research on the adoption and use of assistive technology (AT) in many populations living in resource-limited environments. Few studies have described the process that was used for engaging communities in AT research, particularly within low-income communities of older Hispanic with disabilities where limited access, culture, and mistrust must be navigated. We aimed to identify effective practices to enhance CE of low-income Hispanic communities in AT research. The community stakeholders included community-based organizations, the community healthcare clinic, the local AT project, and residents of the Caño Martín Peña Community in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The CE procedures and activities during the Planning the Study Phase comprised working group meetings with stakeholders to cocreate the funding proposal for the study and address the reviewers' critiques. During the Conducting the Study Phase, we convened a Community Advisory Board to assist in the implementation of the study. During the Disseminating the Study Results Phase, we developed and implemented plans to disseminate the research results. We identified seven distinct practices to enhance CE in AT research with Hispanic communities: (1) early and continuous input; (2) building trusting and warm relationships through personal connections; (3) establishing and maintaining presence in the community; (4) power sharing; (5) shared language; (6) ongoing mentorship and support to community members; and (7) adapting to the changing needs of the community. Greater attention to CE practices may improve the effectiveness and sustainability of AT research with low-income communities.

Sourcing Diversity, Shifting Culture: Building “Cultural Competence” in Public Media

This study looks at the “cultural competency” efforts of one U.S. public media station as it attempts to shift a culture of whiteness and increase the representation of people of color within both staffing and online and broadcast coverage. Using a field theory framework and a combination of ethnographic observation and interviews, it follows a project that seeks to change sourcing and community engagement practices. The study charts where colorblind ideology and traditions of journalistic objectivity are and are not disrupted—and the challenges of moving from a project to an institutionalized process of culture change that embraces reflexive journalism.

Micro-community engagement and area-based regeneration in east London: The case of Chrisp Street Market

Abstract This paper critically engages with how the notion of community is used in local economic development in England. Its primary concern is how current understandings of the concept of ‘community’ in regeneration, as well as how it is instrumentalised through ineffective community engagement, is depicted as a linear and homogeneous construct. This paper addresses how this is a result of a tension between historic neoliberal urban policy and communitarian approaches to local engagement which can often result in tokenistic community engagement practices. This in turn can have serious and adverse effects on localities as local area-based regeneration projects materialise. This paper argues that an approach based on understanding communities as made up of a number of micro-communities might be more useful in a regeneration context. It examines an initiative called the Chrisp Street Exchange led by a local regeneration team called Accents tasked to be at the frontline. The paper outlines Accents' strategies of delivering community engagement as an example of a micro-communities approach. It then suggests that while Accents might not be able to stem the tide of market forces, they can at least deliver engagement approaches that might be able to prepare micro-communities, in this case a local small business micro-community, for the impending change that has landed in this part of east London.

Malaria outbreak response in urban Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic: lessons learned for community engagement.

ABSTRACTCommunity engagement is crucial for public health initiatives, yet it remains an under-studied process within national disease elimination programs. This report shares key lessons learned for community engagement practices during a malaria outbreak response in the Los Tres Brazos neighborhood of urban Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic from 2015-2016. In this two-year period, 233 cases of malaria were reported—more than seven times the number of cases (31) reported in the previous two years. The initial outbreak response by the national malaria program emphasized “top-down” interventions such as active surveillance, vector control, and educative talks within the community. Despite a transient reduction in reported cases in mid-2015, transmission resurged at the end of 2015. The program responded by introducing active roles for trained community members that included door-to-door fever screening, testing with rapid diagnostic tests and treatment. Malaria cases declined significantly throughout 2016 and community-based active surveillance infrastructure helped to detect and limit a small episode of transmission in 2017. Results from qualitative research among community members revealed two key factors that facilitated their cooperation with community-based surveillance activities: motivation to help one’s community; and trust among stakeholders (community health workers, their neighbors and other key figures in the community, and malaria program staff and leadership). This experience suggests that community-led interventions and the program’s willingness to learn and adapt under changing circumstances can help control malaria transmission and pave the way for elimination.

A Neoliberal Grammar of Schooling? How a Progressive Charter School Moved toward Market Values

Although initially ideologically diverse, the charter school movement has become increasingly aligned with neoliberal ideology, which assumes that public services, including education, are improved through market forces, such as accountability, competition, efficiency, and managerialism. Yet little is known about how leaders of ideologically progressive charter schools sustain their founding pedagogical and political missions amid widespread market values. This qualitative case study of one progressive charter school in New York City investigates this phenomenon. Findings demonstrate that the school’s enrollment, instructional, school governance, and community engagement practices moved toward market values as school leaders and board trustees prioritized attaining favorable test outcomes, garnering resources, and ensuring the renewal of the school’s charter. Findings illustrate a neoliberal grammar of schooling, or powerful forces that led school leaders to move their practices toward market values, in turn constraining the realization of the school’s founding progressive mission.