Unraveling university-community engagement : a literature review
Abstract
University-community engagement has been implemented by an increasing number of universities across the world, in a period characterized by growing international competition. The growing interest in university-community engagement has resulted in a variety of definitions and a high level of complexity as to what the concept means and what it entails. Using a literature review, this paper offers a critical assessment of the academic literature on university-community engagement. The paper aims to provide insight into trends, commonalities and variation in the literature, to enable the identification of an agenda for future research. Four main gaps in the literature are distinguished. The paper calls for a more critical conceptual discussion that should be supported by empirical research. The paper suggests to broaden the theoretical lens, and the use of particular research approaches such as theories of change, in order to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the concept of university-community engagement.
Citation
Koekkoek , A , van Ham , M & Kleinhans , R 2021 , ' Unraveling university-community engagement : a literature review ' , Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement , vol. 25 , no. 1 . < https://openjournals.libs.uga.edu/jheoe/article/view/1586 >
Publication
Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1534-6104Type
Journal item
Rights
Copyright © 2021 by the University of Georgia. © Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement. This work has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies or with permission. Permission for further reuse of this content should be sought from the publisher or the rights holder. This is the author created accepted manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://openjournals.libs.uga.edu/jheoe/article/view/1586
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