Society and democracy are ever threatened by the fall of fact. Rigorous analysis of facts, the hard boundary between truth and opinion, and fidelity to reputable sources of factual information are all in alarming decline. A 2018 report published by the RAND Corporation labeled this problem "truth decay" and Andrew J. Hoffman lays the challenge of fixing it at the door of the academy. But, as he points out, academia is prevented from carrying this out due to its own existential crisis—a crisis of relevance. Scholarship rarely moves very far beyond the walls of the academy and is certainly not accessing the primarily civic spaces it needs to reach in order to mitigate truth corruption. In this brief but compelling book, Hoffman draws upon existing literature and personal experience to bring attention to the problem of academic insularity—where it comes from and where, if left to grow unchecked, it will go—and argues for the emergence of a more publicly and politically engaged scholar. This book is a call to make that path toward public engagement more acceptable and legitimate for those who do it; to enlarge the tent to be inclusive of multiple ways that one enacts the role of academic scholar in today's world.

The concern that the democratic purposes of higher education -- and its conception as a public good -- are being undermined, with the growing realization that existing structures are unsuited to addressing today's complex societal problems, and that our institutions are failing an increasingly diverse population, all give rise to questioning the current model of the university. This book presents the voices of a new generation of scholars, educators, and practitioners who are committed to civic renewal and the public purposes of higher education. They question existing policies, structures, and practices, and put forward new forms of engagement that can help to shape and transform higher education to align it with societal needs.The scholars featured in this book make the case for public scholarship and argue that, in order to strengthen the democratic purposes of higher education for a viable future that is relevant to the needs of a changing society, we must recognize and support new models of teaching and research, and the need for fundamental changes in the core practices, policies, and cultures of the academy. These scholars act on their values through collaboration, inclusiveness, participation, task sharing, and reciprocity in public problem solving. Central to their approach is an authentic respect for the expertise and experience that all stakeholders contribute to education, knowledge generation, and community building. This book offers a vision of the university as a part of an ecosystem of knowledge production, addressing public problems with the purpose of advancing a more inclusive, deliberative democracy; and explores the new paradigm for teaching, learning, and knowledge creation necessary to make it a reality.

This volume brings together diverse theoretical reflections and practices of community engaged scholarship in order to stimulate critical discussion, deepen theory, and invite critical practice. It is an international trend that higher education institutions and agencies are encouraging and promoting community engagement. At the same time, there is recognition of a lack of consistent definitions and understandings of what it is they are promoting. As a counterweight to the dominance of pragmatic and technical discussions in the literature on engaged scholarship, the chapters in this book shift the discourse to ask foundational questions that emphasize the political nature of engagement. Recognizing that acts of engagement are never neutral, the authors in this book explore how engaged scholarship requires decision-making that is inherently grounded in values, beliefs, and interpretations of what is and what ought to be. Alongside complex global and local social movements rising to address issues, for example climate change or the global financial collapse and the uneven consequences of these globalized problems, we see corresponding concerns expressed about the limited participation by excluded, silenced, and invisibilized people throughout the world. How can engaged scholarship be mobilized and who will it serve within such contexts? With contributions covering such diverse topics as a non-binary approach to engagement; citizenship of knowledge; university contexts and corporatization; stranger pedagogies and anti-foundational approaches to service learning; contemporary revolutionary movements in the Arab world; and transforming higher education through Africanist onto-epistemologies, this volume is poised to open the door to a deeper understanding of engaged scholarship.

This collective volume celebrates that 75 years ago the foundation was laid for the Department of Anthropology and Development Studies at Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands. The contributions to this volume exemplify the evolution of the academic disciplines of anthropology and development studies at Radboud University in the course of its history. Radboud University itself celebrates its centenary in the year 2023. Originally this university was established for the emancipation of the Catholic population in the Netherlands. Emancipation continues to be a distinctive feature of the university’s policy, also of the scholarship as it is conducted in the department of anthropology and development studies. As emancipation and engagement are key concepts in the disciplines of anthropology and development studies at Radboud University, former and current staff members focus their contributions to this anniversary volume on the various meanings of the concepts of emancipation and engagement in their academic practices. They reflect on changes in the meaning of engaged scholarship in their own work, especially in relation to emancipatory issues. The outcome is a rich variety of contributions centering on the shifting tension between engagement and scholarship in the disciplines of anthropology and development studies. Thus, they not only exemplify the evolution of these academic disciplines at Radboud University, but also offer a topical and innovative perspective on a highly dynamic field.

Community-engaged scholarship is an equitable and democratic approach to scholarship that seeks to identify and solve community-based problems. Community-engaged scholars aim to serve the public good by developing and sustaining community-campus partnerships built on trust, reciprocity, and mutual benefit. As universities orient themselves towards serving the public good, they face a number of challenges: faculty and students may not possess the competencies or commitment to build fruitful community partnerships, graduate and undergraduate students may lack the necessary training and mentorship required to develop their identity as community-engaged scholars, and institutional leaders may not know how to motivate faculty and students for this ambitious and challenging endeavor. Unless these challenges are addressed, universities will fail to prepare the next generation of community-engaged scholars. Preparing Students for Community-Engaged Scholarship in Higher Education is an essential research book that explores how faculty and academic leaders can create learning opportunities and intellectual cultures that support the development of community-engaged scholars. Additionally, it will examine how university coursework can help undergraduate and graduate students to develop the knowledge, skills, and commitments necessary for productive and responsible community-engaged scholarship. Featuring a range of topics such as mentorship, higher education, and service learning, this book is ideal for higher education faculty, university leaders, deans, chairs, educators, administrators, policymakers, curriculum designers, academicians, researchers, and students.

Beyond their educational value, university institutions can play a pivotal role in community improvement. By utilizing academic resources, these organizations can positively impact their communities. Engaged Scholarship and Civic Responsibility in Higher Education is a critical reference source for the latest scholarly research on the adoption and implementation of civic engagement initiatives in higher education institutions. Including a range of pertinent topics such as service learning, economic development, and social justice, this book is ideally designed for academics, practitioners, students, professionals, and researchers interested in the growing influence of universities on community improvement.

The essays in this volume are a collection of reflective narratives, rather than traditional scholarly treatises. The book is divided into two parts. The first part describes our individual journeys as each of us found our way to civically engaged scholarship and came to see it as critical to our academic endeavors and identity. This section also highlights the interdisciplinary nature of our work as we discuss our journeys through our own disciplinary lenses. The second part presents detailed examples of our civic engagement, including service-learning classes, community based research projects, and creation of community service-learning spaces. These chapters provide a varied picture of the available avenues for civic engagement for students and faculty in a higher education setting. We provide sufficient details of our projects and classes to enable replication. The book concludes with a discussion of civic engagement as it is defined in the literature. The conclusion also discusses institutional factors that support and promote civic engagement as well as the importance of community involvement in service learning. Five common themes that emerged across the chapters are described. These themes include the use of service learning and civic engagement as an effective pedagogy, the relationship between civic engagement and political activism, the importance of partnership and collaboration, the meaning found in civic engagement, and the challenges of civically engaged work.

Community engagement has evolved as a respected field and now occupies a seat at the academic table. In the past, this work had often been relegated to the institutional fringes of higher education, its practitioners marginalized, and the work often portrayed as service, not scholarly. Today, higher education community engagement is a dynamic and continually evolving field of scholarship and practice that carries ever-increasing academic respect. This book contributes to the ever-under-construction edifice by presenting a scaffolding of the scholarship that has been part of the building process, documenting and analyzing the past, speculating about the future, and framing a continuing conversation about and for the field.The three parts of this book are designed to promote a continuing field-building conversation: a look back at foundational documents of the field; a set of provocative questions interrogating those foundational works; and a look to the future by the next generation of leaders in the field. The central part is the special 20th anniversary issue of the Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, which brings together key documents of the scholarship of engagement with reflections on those documents by key scholars and/or the authors of the original works. In addition to highlighting the foundations and evolution of the field, this work also looks ahead to the next generation of voices and views as input to the conversation, with a closing chapter that includes invited essays by nine outstanding community-engaged thinkers and writers of the next 20 years who share their ideas about probable futures.

Creating transparency between government and citizens through outreach and engagement initiatives is critical to promoting community development and is also an essential part of a democratic society. This can be achieved through a number of methods including public policy, urban development, artistic endeavors, and digital platforms. Civic Engagement and Politics: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications is a vital reference source that examines civic engagement practices in social, political, and non-political contexts. As the world is now undergoing a transformation, interdisciplinary collaboration, participation, community-based participatory research, partnerships, and co-creation have become more common than focused domains. Highlighting a range of topics such as social media and politics, civic activism, and public administration, this multi-volume book is geared toward government officials, leaders, practitioners, policymakers, academicians, and researchers interested in active citizen participation and politics.

Bridging the gap between business and business schools: fulfilling potential or thwarted ambition. The Engaged Business School is a road map to unlocking the potential between business and business schools at a time when it really matters, responding to a global, economic and social recovery.