Introductory description

On this module we explore how approaches to engagement can be designed to support and facilitate meaningful change within communities. By engaging with interdisciplinary research, analysing current engagement practices, and mobilising a range of methodologies, we will develop an understanding of how to design responsive, effective, and sustainable community engagement initiatives.

Using a Problem-Based Learning approach, we will bring our own experiences and interests together in mixed-expertise environments to develop a nuanced understanding of the complexities of community engagement, in theory and in practice.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

On this module we explore how approaches to engagement can be designed to support and facilitate meaningful change within communities. By engaging with interdisciplinary research, analysing current engagement practices, and mobilising a range of methodologies, we will develop an understanding of how to design responsive, effective, and sustainable community engagement initiatives.

Using a Problem-Based Learning approach, on this module we will look at community engagement from a wide variety of perspectives and disciplines, reflecting on our experiences and interests together in mixed-expertise environments. Through developing a nuanced understanding of the theory and practice of community engagement, this module will empower us to create, develop, and deploy models of community engagement unique to our own interdisciplinary interests and the communities with which we wish to engage.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Mobilise and reflect on a range of interdisciplinary conceptualisations of community
• Engage different approaches to identifying community needs
• Critically analyse community engagement practices and initiatives
• Understand how community characteristics shape engagement design practices
• Propose their own research-informed community engagement initiative

Indicative reading list

*Alcoff, Linda. 1992. "The Problem of Speaking For Others." Cultural Critique 20: 5-32

*Arai, Susan, and Alison Pedlar. 2003. "Moving Beyond Individualism in Leisure Theory: A Critical Analysis of Concepts of Community and Social Engagement." Leisure Studies 22, no. 3: 185-202

*Achibald, Thomas, Guy Sharrock, Jane Buckley, and Natalie Cook. 2016. "Assumptions, Conjectures, and Other Miracles: The Application of Evaluative Thinking to Theory of Change Models in Community Development." Evaluation and Program Planning 59: 119-127

*Arnstein, Sherry R. 1969. "A Ladder of Citizen Participation." Journal of the American Institute of Planners 35, no. 4: 216-224

*Bhattacharyya, Jnanbrata. 2014. "Theorizing Community Development." Journal of the Community Development Society 34, no. 2: 5-34

*Bradshaw, Ted K. 2008. "The Post-Place Community: Contributions to the Debate about the Definition of Community." Community Development 39, no. 1: 5-16

*Brunton, Ginny, James Thomas, Alison O'Mara-Eves, Farah Jamal, Sandy Oliver, and Josephine Kavanagh. 2017. "Narratives of Community Engagement: A Systematic Review-Derived Conceptual Framework for Public Health Interventions." BMC Public Health 17

*Camphell, Catherine. 2013. "Community Mobilisation in the 21st Century: Updating Our Theory of Social Change?" Journal of Health Psychology 19, no. 1

*Coleman, James S. 1988. "Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital." American Journal of Sociology 94: S95-S120

*Conger, Jay A., and Rabindra N. Kanugo. 1988. "The Empowerment Process: Integrating Theory and Practice." The Academy of Management Review 13, no. 3: 471-482

*Cox, Allison M., and David H. Albert. 2005. The Healing Heart - Communities. Storytelling to Build Strong and Healthy Communities. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers

*Della-Piana, Connie Kubo and James K. Anderson. 1996. "Performing Community: Community Service as Cultural Conversation." Communication Studies 46, no. 3-4: 187-200

*Dempsey, Sarah E. 2009. "Critiquing Community Engagement." Management Communication Quarterly 24, no. 3

*Guzzo, Richard A., Paul Yost, Richard J. Campbell, and Gregory P. Shea. 1993. "Potency in Groups: Articulating a Construct." British Journal of Social Psychology 32, no. 1: 87-106

*Hart, Roger A., Maria Fernanda Espinosa, and Selim Iltus. 1997. Children's Participation: The Theory and Practice of Involving Young Citizens in Community Development and Environmental Care. New York: Earthscan

*Head, Brian W. 2008. "Community Engagement: Participation on Whose Terms?" Australian Journal of Political Science 42, no. 3: 441-454

*Kim, Yong-Chan, and Sandra J. Ball-Rokeach. 2006. "Community Storytelling Network, Neighborhood Context, and Civic Engagement: A Multilevel Approach." Human Communication Research 32, no. 4: 411-439

*Maton, Kenneth I, and Deborah A. Salem. 1995. "Organizational Characteristics of Empowering Community Settings: A Multiple Case Study Approach." American Journal of Community Psychology 23, no. 5: 631-656

*McMillan, David W., and David M. Chavis. 1986. "Sense of Community: A Definition and Theory." Journal of Community Psychology 14, no. 1: 6-23

*McMillan, Brad, Paul Florin, John Stevenson, Ben Kerman, and Roger E. Mitchell. 1995. "Empowerment Praxis in Community Coalitions." American Journal of Community Psychology 23, no. 5: 699-727

*National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Understanding the Well-Being of LGBTQI+ Populations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press

*Nowell, Branda. 2010. "Viewing Community as Responsibility as well as Resource: Deconstructing the Theoretical Roots of Psychological Sense of Community." Journal of Community Psychology 38, no. 7: 828-841

*Pedlar, Alison, and Lawrence Haworth. 2006. "Community." In A Handbook of Leisure Studies. Edited by Chris Rojek, Susan M. Shaw, and A. J. Veal: 518-523. London: Palgrave Macmillan

*Schuftan, Claudio. 1996. "The Community Development Dilemma: What is Really Empowering?" Community Development Journal 31, no. 3: 260-264

*Shaw, Mae. 2008. "Community Development and the Politics of Community." Community Development Journal 43, no. 1: 24-36

*Speer, Paul W., and Joseph Hughey. 1995. "Community Organizing: An Ecological Route to Empowerment and Power." American Journal of Community Psychology 23, no. 5: 729-748

*Starr, Penelope. 2017. The Radical Act of Community Storytelling: Empowering Voices in Uncensored Events. Marion, MI: Parkhurst Brothers Publishers

*Tonnies, Ferdinand. 2017. Community and Society. London and New York: Routledge

*Vaisey, Stephen. 2007. "Structure, Culture, and Community: The Search for Belonging in 50 Urban Communes." American Sociological Review 72, no. 6: 851-873

*Wallerstein, Nina. 1993. "Empowerment and Health: The Theory and Practice of Community Change." Community Development Journal 28, no. 3: 218-227

*Welch, Marshall. 2016. Engaging Higher Education: Purpose, Platforms, and Programs for Community Engagement. New York and London: Routledge

*Westoby, Peter, and Gerard Dowling. 2013. Theory and Practice of Dialogical Community Development: International Perspectives. London and New York: Routledge

*Wilson, Michael. 2021. Slow Storytelling and Hybridity: Re-staging Community Storytelling as a Tool for Co-Thinking." Book 2.0 11, no. 1-2: 107-123

Research element

Healey & Jenkins (2009) propose that research-led-teaching design should consider four discrete opportunities. This module has been designed to include the first three of these opportunities. Research-led learning, where the module syllabus is developed from current research in relevant fields, being based on contemporary peer-reviewed and other high quality research literature. As such, all knowledge for student engagement will be consciously and specifically chosen for its merits in reference to broader academic understanding.

1. Research-tutored learning, where students engage actively in discussing high quality, contemporary and
   seminal research literature. In exploring this module's case studies, and critical discussion around
   methodology, students will engage with high quality contemporary and foundational academic literature.
2. Research-orientated learning, where students are actively taught methodological understanding and skills for
   the independent creation of new knowledge. This module expressly provides students with the practical and
   conceptual understanding required to carry out well-considered and robustly-designed independent research.
3. Research-based learning, where student use developing methodological skills to create original knowledge of
   their own. Though students will not use the methodological skills acquired for the independent creation of
   knowledge in this particular module, successful completion of it will enable them to do so in other master's level
   modules.

Interdisciplinary

Positive global transformations are widely recognised to require transdisciplinary approaches. This module has been
designed according to our signature problem-based, response-focused pedagogy, and as such will draw on
transdisciplinary knowledge, pedagogy and methodologies in the design and delivery of learning opportunities.
This module is expressly designed to provide students with skills and understanding which can be applied flexibly to a
range of disciplinary contexts, while authentic assessment methods will require students to demonstrate
transdisciplinary aptitude in tasks which are reflective of the practical application and critical evaluation of research
design and implementation. Transdisciplinary aptitude will be explicitly embedded in relevant marking rubrics, as
adapted from the standard university scale and descriptors

International

This module is designed with an inherently international approach in mind. As material is taught, students will be encouraged to consider each source from multiple perspectives and a wide variety of voices from both the centre and the margins, engaging multicultural approaches. While the material and approaches will be inherently internationalising, students may choose to focus on their local community, but will do so by being able to contextualise and nuance their approaches in light of various international perspectives.

Subject specific skills

As a transdisciplinary module, all skills associated with it are inherently transferable and are outlined below.

Transferable skills

• Fundamental principles of community engagement models and approaches (ethical, epistemological, methodological)
• Collaborative working
• Independent research
• Oral and written presentation skills
• Critical thinking
• Project management skills
• Reflective practice
• Evaluation and synthesis of key concepts and ideas