Public engagement was a strong feature of the different science fields from their birth. Scientists today contribute to public understanding of issues from global warming to social inequality. They also inform public policy on problems from energy crisis to public health. Nevertheless, since World War II, an ideology that opposed academic professionalism to public engagement has taken greater importance (Calhoun, 2008). This fact, overspecialisation and the nature of funding policies have led to some of the most pressing challenges for human and social development being pushed into the background. As Ordorika states (2008):

 

Today there are widespread calls for more socially engaged science and research. There is a need to democratise knowledge and provide expert, multi-faceted advice for democratic institutions and the general public (Vessuri, 2008). In addition, scientific research itself increasingly needs citizen participation in knowledge-generating processes. This is the principle behind participative science and post-normal science.

 

Post-normal science attempts to categorise a research methodology that is appropriate when there is uncertainty and values are in dispute. In such cases, “normal” research methodology is not applicable, as it tends to neglect aspects related to uncertainty, value loading, and a plurality of legitimate perspectives. These practices consider these elements as integral to science. By their inclusion in the framing of complex issues, post-normal science is able to provide a coherent framework for an extended participation in decision-making, based on the new tasks of quality assurance (Funtowicz & Ravetz, 2003).

 

The scientific community increasingly recognises the intrinsic limitations of traditional research methods when they are applied to the ever more complex problems that must be faced for human and social development. In addition, the growing importance of proposals for greater citizen participation in resolving such problems has led to the need to assess appropriately the different mechanisms of citizen and community participation in university research programmes. Citizens and different communities must participate in university research carried out to resolve problems that concern them, not only to promote the democratisation of knowledge, but also to improve the research that is carried out in universities.

 

In different regions of the world, we are witnessing a strong emergence of diverse programmes that share the purposes of supporting higher education engaging or re-engaging with their communities (Hall, 2008). Community-based research involves research done by community groups with or without the involvement of a university. In relation with the university, Community-based research is a collaborative enterprise between academics and community members. Community-based research seeks to democratize knowledge creation by validating multiple sources of knowledge and promoting the use of multiple methods of discovery and dissemination. The goal of Community-based research is social action (broadly defined) for the purpose of achieving (directly or indirectly) social change based in social justice (Strand et al., 2003).

 

Participatory Action Research (PAR) has emerged in recent years as a significant methodology for intervention, development and change within communities and groups. It is now promoted and implemented by many international development agencies and university programs, as well as countless local community organizations around the world. PAR builds on the critical pedagogy put forward by Paulo Freire as a response to the traditional formal models of education where the “teacher” stands at the front and “imparts” information to the “students” that are passive recipients. As defined by Wadsworth (1998):

Essentially Participatory Action Research (PAR) is research which involves all relevant parties in actively examining together current action (which they experience as problematic) in order to change and improve it. They do this by critically reflecting on the historical, political, cultural, economic, geographic and other contexts which make sense of it. (…) Participatory action research is not just research which is hoped will be followed by action. It is action which is researched, changed and re-researched, within the research process by participants. Nor is it simply an exotic variant of consultation. Instead, it aims to be active co-research, by and for those to be helped. Nor can it be used by one group of people to get another group of people to do what is thought best for them - whether that is to implement a central policy or an organisational or service change. Instead it tries to be a genuinely democratic or non-coercive process whereby those to be helped, determine the purposes and outcomes of their own inquiry.

 

PAR allows for the development of many relational skills at once: emotional intelligence, dealing with the “other”, adapting/immersion in new context, conscious inversion of power roles and experiential/applied learning, whilst encouraging systemic forms of reflection and analysis in an integrative way (Taylor, 2008). Some practioner-academics see such “local” possibilities from engagement in development activities actually having the potential to lead to much larger changes in the global system, by linking service learning to the broader goals of equality and justice (Taylor, 2008). As noted by Goolam Mohamedbhai (2008), higher education institutions in developing countries also need to give much greater importance to community engagement than at present, although several of them are doing so. This requires the recognition of community service on equal terms as teaching and research. An excellent way of linking higher education with the rural community is to have students posted in the rural area for practical training during their course.

 

An agreement to create a Global Alliance on Community-Engaged Research was released at the end of the Community-University Exposition (CUexpo) 2008 in Victoria BC, last May. The Global Alliance agreement is a statement of principles and aspirations on the part of the major networking organizations in the field of community-engaged scholarship from around the world; including the Living Knowledge Network (Europe), the Community-Campus Partnership for Health (US), Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), Sub-Saharan Participatory Research Network (Senegal), International Green Mapping Network (US) and others. 

 

The CUexpo series of events have become the major meeting grounds for community-university research and action partnerships to share their ideas and aspirations. The last  meeting was the third in a series of conversations that began in August 2006, in Groningen, Netherlands at the World Congress on Action Research. This was followed up by a meeting in September 2007 in Paris, France at the Third International Congress on Action Research, where the idea of a Global Alliance on Community-Engaged Scholarship and Learning was first proposed.

 

In a similar way to the Talloires Declaration, the Global Alliance on Community-Engaged Research welcomes any and all to associate themselves with the document. The Global Alliance Declaration is a step towards building links between community based researchers around the world.  It is a way to come together and share ideas and pass on knowledge.  The declaration will be posted on several websites of networks that have signed on to the Alliance, including the current administering organization, the Living Knowledge Network, at http://www.scienceshops.org. The text of this Declaration is reproduced hereafter:

 

 

All those who wish to sign the Declaration can send the names of their organization to the Office of Community-Based Research at UVIC: OCBR[@]uvic.ca.

 

 

 

References:

 

Brown, D. (2008) Practice-Research Engagement for Human and Social Development in a Globalizing World. In: GUNI (2008) Higher Education: New Challenges and Emerging Roles for Human and Social Development. Higher Education in the World (3). GUNI Series on the Social Commitment of Universities. Palgrave Macmillan.

 

Calhoun, C. (2008) Social Science for Public Knowledge. Institute for Public Knowledge (IPK).

 

Funtowicz, S. and Ravetz, J. (2003) Post-Normal Science. Internet Encyclopaedia of Ecological Economics. International Society for Ecological Economics.

 

Mohamedbhai, G.  (2008) Contribution of Higher Education to the UN Millennium Development Goals.  In: GUNI (2008) Higher Education: New Challenges and Emerging Roles for Human and Social Development. Higher Education in the World (3). GUNI Series on the Social Commitment of Universities. Palgrave Macmillan.

 

Ordorika, I. (2008) Contemporary challenges for public research universities. In: GUNI (2008) Higher Education: New Challenges and Emerging Roles for Human and Social Development. Higher Education in the World (3). GUNI Series on the Social Commitment of Universities. Palgrave Macmillan.

 

Taylor, P. (2008) Higher Education Curricula for Human and Social Development. In: GUNI (2008) Higher Education: New Challenges and Emerging Roles for Human and Social Development. Higher Education in the World (3). GUNI Series on the Social Commitment of Universities. Palgrave Macmillan.

 

Strand, K. et al. (2003) Principles of Best Practice for Community-Based Research. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, v9 n3 p5-15 Sum 2003

 

Vessuri, H. (2008) The role of research in higher education: implications and challenges for an active future contribution to human and social development. In: GUNI (2008) Higher Education: New Challenges and Emerging Roles for Human and Social Development. Higher Education in the World (3). GUNI Series on the Social Commitment of Universities. Palgrave Macmillan.