The use of big data in smart cities poses new questions about higher education and community-university engagement practices in addressing longstanding social and economic exclusion in urban communities. Drawing on transdisciplinary ideas in higher education, cultural theory, and science and technology studies, primary concerns in the era of big…

As academic libraries struggle to remain relevant when technological advancements and electronic resources threaten to make them obsolete, libraries are learning to re-invent themselves by molding and adapting staff skills to cultivate innovative outreach programs. The Science Outreach Committee of the John D. MacArthur Campus library at Florida…

As a teacher, educator, and strong advocate for service learning, I became very interested in both the opportunities and the limitations of current approaches to service learning. This article begins to sketch an as yet unrealized relational approach to service learning, drawing on ideas about encounters with Others in the work of the philosopher…

University-community engagement is increasingly emphasized at institutions throughout the United States, yet there remains concern and confusion about how to conceptualize community engagement to provide benefits for both the university and the public. This article summarizes the history of community engagement and describes dominant paradigms of…

As higher education struggles to prove its ongoing relevance within the broader society in the face of increasing costs and little visible accountability, community engagement has emerged as one strategy to demonstrate that relevance. Such engagement is difficult and often messy, however, and structural differences among universities and the…

The purpose of this research was to mobilize the educational community of a disadvantaged Montreal high school so as to implement practices more adapted to its environmental reality by developing an approach to support the building of collaborative bridges connecting school, family, and community. During the discussion, the perceptions of high…

Getting students, teachers, and the entire community to read the same books at the same time has its challenges--but many more rewards. In this article, the author describes how West Morris Regional High School District in Chester, New Jersey, formed a "literacy club" for everyone in the school and the local community to encourage…

This article presents the unique approach to university-community partnerships developed and practiced at Michigan State University (MSU). We have established a model of campus-community partnerships that builds a wide-reaching system of networks connecting the university to communities. Our approach is "developmental",…

In this article, the authors offer the University of Brighton's Community-University Partnership Programme (CUPP) Helpdesk as a model of an "enabling platform" for university-community engagement. Despite the growth of practical and scholarly activity in this area, there is a relative lack of research focused on the processes by which…

The Arizona State University Downtown Phoenix campus is a grand-scale exemplar of a city-university partnership. Its demonstrated impacts are economic, social, and educational, transforming both the city and the university. The magnitude of the investment of $223 million by the citizens of a city in a state university is unparalleled in higher…

CenteringPregnancy Smiles[TM] (CPS) is a partnership between the University of Kentucky, Trover Health System, and Hopkins County Health Department. The purpose of the partnership is to: (1) establish an infrastructure to address health problems requiring research-based solutions, (2) develop a model for community partnership formation, and (3)…

Today's society is global, multicultural, multilingual, and digitally connected. Learning no longer occurs just in the classroom, delivered by teachers. At the same time, research has repeatedly shown that no single strategy or approach will turn around low-performing schools and reengage students. As a result, districts and schools are reaching…

Penn State York has a history of collaboration with the York community. The campus became involved in two university-community collaborative efforts to identify and take action to resolve living and learning needs of children and teachers in York County. This article presents stories of two initiatives, and the lessons that emerged from reflection…

Exposure to lead can be devastating for children, and federal regulations established in 2001 are forcing local governments to mitigate this risk. This essay discusses the creation of the Lead Alliance, a university-community coalition created to address lead hazards facing children from low-income households in South Bend, Indiana. Among the…