At the Coalface

This paper aims to assess who benefits from community–university engagements and if a Participatory Action Research (PAR) methodology can fulfill its well-known objectives. Reflections on a studio-based project facilitated with residents—from two informal settlements located in Gugulethu, Cape Town—show that under certain circumstances it cannot be assumed that community partners benefit from PAR-led engagements. Findings spotlight some of the limitations of service learning and PAR that warrant identifying recommendations to better equip students for future engagements. Findings also highlight some of the difficulties of working with “gatekeepers” for information and of facilitating partnerships with economically stressed communities.

[1]  H. Campbell.  Planning to Change the World , 2012 .

[2]  Victoria A. Beard.  Learning Radical Planning: The Power of Collective Action , 2003 .

[3]  Nigel Wright,et al.  The wicked and complex in education: developing a transdisciplinary perspective for policy formulation, implementation and professional practice , 2009 .

[4]  M. Brown-Luthango.  Community-university engagement: the Philippi CityLab in Cape Town and the challenge of collaboration across boundaries , 2013 .

[5]  Susan L. Roakes,et al.  Community Service Learning in Planning Education , 2000 .

[6]  G. Bender,et al.  Exploring conceptual models for community engagement at higher education institutions in South Africa : conversation , 2008 .

[7]  R. Lasker,et al.  Partnership synergy: a practical framework for studying and strengthening the collaborative advantage. , 2001, The Milbank quarterly.

[8]  Richard D. Margerum,et al.  Insurgencies: Essays in planning theory , 2013 .

[9]  Vanessa Watson,et al.  Conflicting rationalities: implications for planning theory and ethics , 2003 .

[10]  Margaret Dewar,et al.  Learning from Difference: The Potentially Transforming Experience of Community-University Collaboration , 1998 .

[11]  Raphaël Fischler.  Reviving critical planning theory: Dealing with pressure, neo-liberalism, and responsibility in communicative planning , 2014 .

[12]  Jennifer A. Kozak,et al.  Service-Learning in Theory and Practice: The Future of Community Engagement in Higher Education , 2014 .

[13]  Gregor Dudek.  Collaborative Planning , 2009 .

[14]  J. Twiss,et al.  Assessing Community Change at Multiple Levels: The Genesis of an Evaluation Framework for the California Healthy Cities Project , 2000, Health education & behavior : the official publication of the Society for Public Health Education.

[15]  Sharon Nodie Oja,et al.  Collaborative action research : a developmental approach , 1989 .

[16]  Marion Bowl,et al.  The complexity of collaboration: Opportunities and challenges in contracted research , 2010 .

[17]  C. Hoch.  Pragmatic Communicative Action Theory , 2007 .

[18]  Brian Orland,et al.  Service-Learning in Design and Planning , 2014 .

[19]  Ernest L. Boyer,et al.  The Scholarship of Engagement. , 1996 .

[20]  J. Holston.  Spaces of insurgent citizenship , 1995 .

[21]  Fran Tonkiss.  The Just City , 2011 .

[22]  Patsy Healey,et al.  The Pragmatic Tradition in Planning Thought , 2009 .

[23]  P. Solomon,et al.  A comparative analysis of families with mentally ill adult relatives: Support group members versus non-members. , 1996 .

[24]  Irene Karanja,et al.  An enumeration and mapping of informal settlements in Kisumu, Kenya, implemented by their inhabitants , 2010 .

[25]  L. Christman.  Theory in Practice: Increasing Professional Effectiveness , 1977 .

[26]  L. Sandercock,et al.  Cosmopolis II : mongrel cities in the 21st century , 2003 .

[27]  Julie A. Hatcher,et al.  Campus–Community Partnerships: The Terms of Engagement , 2002 .

[28]  B. Checkoway.  Renewing the Civic Mission of the American Research University , 2001 .

[29]  Donald A. Schön.  Knowing-In-Action: The New Scholarship Requires a New Epistemology , 1995 .

[30]  S. Schwartzman,et al.  The New Production of Knowledge: The Dynamics of Science and Research in Contemporary Societies , 1994 .

[31]  S. Kemmis,et al.  Participatory Action Research: Communicative Action and the Public Sphere. , 2005 .

[32]  Wim Wiewel,et al.  Collaborative research: Harnessing the tensions between researcher and practitioner , 1992 .

[33]  Bryan Wintermeyer,et al.  Sixty-credit mini-dissertation presented in partial fulfilment of the degree of Master of Philosophy in Conservation of the Built Environment In the School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics , 2015 .

[34]  K. Hambridge.  Action research. , 2000, Professional nurse.

[35]  Barry Checkoway.  Reinventing the Research University for Public Service , 1997 .

[36]  Scott A. Bollens,et al.  Urban Planners” Skills and Competencies , 2003 .

[37]  V. Netshandama.  Quality partnerships: The community stakeholders' view , 2010 .

[38]  H. Rittel,et al.  Dilemmas in a general theory of planning , 1973 .

[39]  D. Butin.  Service-Learning in Theory and Practice , 2010 .

[40]  Katia Balassiano,et al.  Tackling “Wicked Problems” in Planning Studio Courses , 2011 .

[41]  B. Tyson,et al.  Experiential Learning in Planning Education , 1987 .

[42]  P. Reason.  Choice and Quality in Action Research Practice , 2006 .

[43]  Joshua Kirshner.  Book review: Cities with ‘Slums’: From Informal Settlement Eradication to a Right to the City in Africa , 2012 .

[44]  G. Nelson,et al.  “Nothing About Me, Without Me”: Participatory Action Research with Self-Help/Mutual Aid Organizations for Psychiatric Consumer/Survivors , 1998, American journal of community psychology.

[45]  H. Baum,et al.  Fantasies and Realities in University-Community Partnerships , 2000 .

[46]  A. Elzinga.  The New Production of Knowledge. The Dynamics of Science and Research in Contemporary Societies , 1997 .

[47]  Sundar Burra,et al.  Getting the information base for Dharavi's redevelopment , 2009 .

[48]  Tom Bourner,et al.  A compatible partnership? Student-community engagement and traditional university education , 2010 .

[49]  Timothy K. Stanton,et al.  Service-Learning: A Movement's Pioneers Reflect on Its Origins, Practice, and Future , 1999 .

[50]  T. Winkler.  For the Equitable City Yet to Come1 , 2009 .

[51]  F. Miraftab.  Insurgent Planning: Situating Radical Planning in the Global South , 2009 .

[52]  Rich Janzen,et al.  A framework for entry: PAR values and engagement strategies in community research , 2010 .

[53]  M. Cuthill,et al.  Working together: A methodological case study of 'engaged scholarship' , 2010 .

[54]  D. Kolb,et al.  Planning in the Face of Power. , 1988 .

[55]  T. Sager.  Dialogical Planning in a Fragmented Society: Critically Liberal, Pragmatic, Incremental by Thomas L. Harper and Stanley M. Stein , 2008 .