Foundation Paper: The Australian Consortium on Higher Education, Community Engagement and Social Responsibility

The purpose of this paper is to begin a discussion regarding some core conceptual and theoretical tools that will inform the research agenda of the Australian Consortium on Higher Education, Community Engagement, and Social Responsibility (henceforth 'The Australian Consortium'). Although we have taken particular approaches and articulated particular assumptions regarding community engagement, this is not intended to limit discussion to one particular way of describing or practising community engagement. During this phase of the project we are interested in developing an intertextual spectrum of ideas and representations of community engagement which draws on a range of voices from a range of university, government, and community contexts. We propose that these discussions will then become a resource both for this project and in general via the Australian Consortium website and emerging Consortium publications in academic and non academic media. This paper is in five parts. The first provides an overview of the concept of community engagement based on current activities in universities and other large organisations. The second provides an overview of current organisational and policy contexts for university community engagement activities. The third begins a conceptual-theoretical mapping of community engagement in universities including, and in particular, an exploration of the university as being situated within a community of 'concentric circles', including local, state, national, and international communities; the networked university; higher education as social practice; and sustainability and social responsibility in engagement. The fourth section outlines a number of political challenges facing those who seek to practice community engagement, including the potential for community engagement practices to privilege certain voices over others. The fifth section invites detailed feedback on the ideas presented in this paper, including a call for contributions in the form of Australian Consortium discussion papers.