Ceri Davies
Thesis title:
Community-university practice: emerging spaces for change?
What happens when different systems of knowledge production combine?
I am interested in how communities organise and develop action that helps them to achieve their social change goals. How communities seek alliances and collaborations with universities to do this is the basis of my research. What actually happens in these relationships, the spaces developed to support them and the way knowledge is shared, used and mobilised are the main elements of my enquiry. From a research perspective, there is a gap in knowledge of community university collaborations on this topic. In particular, we know little about how community participants view the needs that lead to them embarking on such collaborations, or how they experience and view the outcomes of such efforts. I think there is a need to better understand what the implications are for the connections between knowledge and social change when different systems of knowing and understanding come together, which is something that community-university relationships signify.
In order to do this, I am exploring the concept of cognitive justice – the idea that different forms of knowledge might have a continuing relationship of dialogue with one another that can result in better outcomes for people on the factors that affect their lives. I plan to look at whether the community-university arrangements I will research reflect and embody the principles of cognitive justice and deliberative democracy; and how this may be linked to narrowing the gap between knowledge produced in the academy and knowledge required by community and social actors with social goals.
My research design is based on up to three case studies located in different social and political contexts (Canada, Malaysia, UK). These locations will offer me different contexts but also examples of how different communities (including indigenous communities) with varying priorities build relationships with universities that are predominantly developed on a Western model. I am seeking examples of university staff and community members working together on topics of shared interest that relate to themes of one of the following: social justice, social change, empowerment and natural resources.
My research has received ethical approval from the University of Brighton and is intended to produce a highly original thesis that will:
- Develop the under-theorised concept of cognitive justice as it relates to community-university interactions
- Contribute to new understandings of why community and social actors choose to engage with universities and
- Address the potential of community-university interactions to pursue social goals
Supervisors:
Professor Marian Barnes
Dr Kepa Artaraz
