Community-University Engagement
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Item Gauging the impact of community university engagement initiatives in India(ASEAN Journal of Community Engagement, 2017-07-02) Singh, WafaToday, the world we live in is challenged with the co-existence of ‘prosperity and poverty’. In India, in particular, although we are witnessing staggering increase in various economic indicators, our Human Development Indicators (HDIs) remain unenviable. It is in this context that Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have assumed profound importance as having the potential to offer sustainable solutions to such societal challenges. As a result, the practice of Community University Engagement (CUE) has gained prominence, as a phenomenon seeking a two-way discourse between the communities and the universities, in an attempt to produce ‘socially relevant knowledge’ which is inclusive and sustainable. Considering the importance and value of such an initiative, an attempt was made to tap such engagement practices between the HEIs and communities in India. In addition to plain documentation of such engagement, another highly crucial parameter in this regard is the measurement of the impact of such initiatives, on all the stakeholders involved in the process. However, academic literature related to this is still limited. In an attempt to fill this gap, the study at hand involved impact assessment of CUE activities as an important component. Using qualitative tools of impact assessment, this paper documents the empirical evidence of the impacts on various stakeholders, arising out of CUE activities, undertaken at various universities in India. The results generated through primary data, show that although it appears to be the case of binary stakeholders (Community and University), CUE envisages engagement, integration and cross linking among a number of sub-stakeholders, getting impacted in a multitude of ways. Students get an opportunity of experiential learning; while teachers can take up socially relevant research, as part of the curriculum. Communities benefit by way of empowerment and sustainable livelihoods, while universities get a chance to project themselves as ‘socially engaged’ institutions. Indirect and subsidiary stakeholders like Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Government, respectively also take away several benefits from the process. Therefore, in essence, the paper makes the case of CUE by demonstrating the positive and mutually beneficial experienced enjoyed by the stakeholders involved in the process.Item PRIA's engagements with higher educational institutions (HEIs): Initiatives in community based research (CBR)(Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 2014) Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA)PRIA has engaged with academia in a multitude of interventions, bringing community and practitioner knowledge into the portals of traditional research institutions and processes. By doing this, PRIA has helped Higher Educational Institutions (HEls) realize their social responsibility towards a community's needs and aspirations. This document traces PRIA's work in promoting community engagement within HEls in India and beyond. The experience, garnered over three decades, have been classified into six categories to highlight the different forms PRIA's interventions as a facilitator have taken to build bridges between the world of formal research, the practitioner knowledge of civil society actors and the experiential knowledge of local communities. The experiences discussed in this paper are not intended to be comprehensive; a few specific interventions are described under each category to illustrate the nature of the engagements fostered and the practices promoted.Item Towards a knowledge democracy movement(2016) Hall, Budd LWhat would it mean to build a democracy of knowledge in a world marked by deep inequality and exclusion? In this paper, Dr. Budd L. Hall examines the emergence of a knowledge democracy movement, connecting traditions of adult education with practices of community-based research and community–university engagement. Placing his argument within global concerns such as poverty, ecological crisis and democratic strain, he challenges dominant assumptions that position universities as the primary producers of legitimate knowledge. Drawing on institutional experience, international networks and illustrative case examples including the Office of Community Based Research at the University of Victoria and global alliances for community engaged research, Hall combines historical analysis with empirical insights. The paper brings together intellectual traditions in adult education with examples from engaged scholarship to demonstrate how knowledge is created across multiple sites. Hall argues that knowledge democracy requires recognizing communities, Indigenous peoples and social movements as knowledge producers in their own right. By foregrounding plural epistemologies and participatory research, he calls for rethinking the architecture of knowledge to advance social action, citizenship and social justice in the twenty-first century.