For some years now, a significant shift has been underway in higher education. In response to multiple, interconnected and increasingly urgent crises, universities worldwide are rapidly and critically reassessing the ‘what, how and why’ of their contribution to the public good. The ivory tower, it is said, is being replaced by the ‘engaged university’1.
At the core of this evolution is the demand for institutions to better recognise and respect the world’s diversity of ways of knowing and being. As UNESCO recently wrote, universities need to move on from ‘bulldozer notions of modernity and ideas of saving the world’2. Engagement, writ large, is thus a call for knowledge plurality and a democratisation of expertise.
Community-based research and practice is one example of how universities are responding. This global movement argues that through collaborative, problems-focused critical inquiry, community-university partnerships prompt different questions, co-create new knowledge and innovative solutions, and help drive sustainable and meaningful change that benefits universities and their communities.
Yet a shift is a long way from a transformation.
A recent international conference C2U Expo 2023 offered those in the field the chance to focus on the profound step changes needed. The conference was the latest offering from a substantial 20-year history of major bi-annual community-campus expositions in Canada.
My involvement with this conference was two-fold: to present my research on participation in the scholarly dissemination of community-based research; and to take part in an international plenary panel on building and strengthening international networks to sustain connections between major events such as a conference. In both cases: expanding expert participation to drive change.
Like many in community-based research, and research in general, I was drawn to my PhD focus through the acknowledgement of a problem: the persistent and widespread absence of community voice – presence – in the scholarly literature on community-based research. As an editor of a leading open access, peer-reviewed journal in the field, this rankled. It seemed to me that part of the answer lay in the research article itself.
In essence, I was interested in the ‘architecture’ of the research article, those dominant conventions of form that actively shape what constitutes valid knowledge, how it is known, and for what purposes. I discovered authors’ strategies for modification and resistance, as well as the emergence of alternative signposts in their writing, establishing research terrains in which many diverse and distinct participants gathered.
Like the research article, conferences are another major mechanism by which knowledge and practice are made visible, legitimised and shared. There is enormous value in connecting with others face-to-face. Yet this space, just like the research article, is privileged.
The plenary panel discussion focused on building more robust and more impactful international collaboration. The creative use of technology was central to our discussions.
Three key aspects emerged:
- Regional and local associations are significant holders of expertise and insight. Active participation by local groups at the global level is essential for demonstrating the value of distinct and diverse contributions.
- The creative use of technology is vital, such as facilitating the use of still and moving images, art, theatre, and audio as legitimate and valuable forms of scholarly communication and dissemination.
- Funding and resources are needed to prioritise mentoring, training and networking for new and emerging scholars, particularly from underfunded and under-resourced regions.
Australian ethnographer Professor Stephen Muecke recently drew my attention to the aptness of the phrase ‘skilful ecological agents’ for our times3. I can think of no better metaphor for the sort of ferociously resilient, trusting and dynamic expert relationships universities and their communities need to continue to foster, grow and champion.
References
1 Watson, D., Hollister, R.M., Stroud, S.E., & Babcock, E. (2011). The engaged university: International perspectives on civic engagement. Routledge.
2 UNESCO. (2022). Knowledge-driven actions: Transforming higher education for global sustainability. Independent Expert Group on the Universities and the 2030 Agenda, p.44. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000380519.locale=en
3 Muecke, S. (2021). Whitefella magic: A posthumanist take on the Dark Emu debate. Overland. https://overland.org.au/2021/08/whitefella-magic-a-posthumanist-take-on-the-dark-emu-debate/