Universities need to find more meaningful ways of interacting with communities. This was one of the conclusions of a panel discussion during Rhodes' Community Engagement Debate last week.
Universities need to find more meaningful ways of interacting with communities. This was one of the conclusions of a panel discussion during Rhodes' Community Engagement Debate last week.
Community development programmes are often paternalistic and patronising, when they are done from a position of superior knowledge and power, panellists said.
“There are different kinds of knowledge in the world, but universities do come from a point of power where there is an imbalance in the scales, which can disadvantage partnerships,” said Monica Canca, manager of the Umthathi Training Project.
Canca provided guidelines for successful community interactions with universities, based on her experience. "Clarity and unity of purpose; active listening and communication; relevance; and committed and involved individuals are some of the key factors in reciprocal and sustainable partnerships," she said.
“Universities have a contract with society; we foster partnerships for knowledge to be put to useful effect. We need to move away from the ivory tower image,” said Dr Peter Clayton, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research and Development.
Clayton also sees the community engagement aspect of tertiary education in a feedback loop. “Research cannot function without engagement with the community,” he said.
The issues of unrealistic expectations and the co-dependency of community partners in Grahamstown were raised for discussion by many audience members.
“Of course the relationship of dependency does still exist in the imbalanced power relations between community partners and universities, but there has been a shift in how non-governmental organisations (NGOs) interact with communities,” said Roger Domingo, director of Gadra Advice and Community Work.
“The nature of the relationship is one of dependency because they [community partners]know the university will always be there to provide,” Canca said.
Dr Heila Lotz-Sisitka, Deputy Head of the Education Department at Rhodes, who holds the Murray and Roberts Chair of Environmental Education and Sustainability, asked, “What does partnership mean? What does transformation mean? What do any of these terms mean?”
Quoting from Bruno Latour’s book, The Politics of Nature, she said: “Universities need to stop focusing on matters of fact and on matters of concern.”
Matters of concern, she said, can only be addressed effectively when “new commons” are formed. These “new commons” are spaces which would nurture meaningful interactions between communities and universities.
The goal of mutually respectful and beneficial partnerships is to foster the creation of a positively transformed society, she said.
