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"The post-Christendom era in the English-speaking world has seen a significant reduction in access to political power by the churches, a slow loss of their social and cultural influence, and a shredding of their moral standing from abuse scandals and other public failings. Community Engagement after Christendom directly addresses these challenges, proposing a different approach to the relationship between church and society. Church agencies today are often entangled in contracting with the state and its private partners to deliver government policy and services. This means they can be increasingly vulnerable to external pressure. So what resources can they and their agencies draw upon to reshape community engagement in a difficult, unsettling context? Community Engagement after Christendom proposes a multifaceted approach. It begins by reading Scripture afresh through questions shaped by the present situation. Douglas Hynd then explores the story of Anabaptist public servant Pilgram Marpeck, identifying how his critique of Christendom can help reshape our understanding today. Finally, he looks at the current experience of church-related agencies and Christian advocacy, suggesting fresh, imaginative ways forward"--

"Feminist Community Engagement" argues that feminism, with its emphasis on consciousness-raising, interrogating power structures, and activism, is strategically necessary for the community engagement (CE) movement in higher education. Following an editorial overview of perspectives on feminism and community engagement, the contributors to this volume illuminate successes and challenges of feminist community engagement, and many offer practical applications for our CE work. Feminist Community Engagement advances how feminism can serve as a theoretical and practical strategy for combining activist engagement with democratic concerns for social justice and equality. Iverson, James, and their contributors draw explicitly on a feminist lens to illuminate successes and challenges of feminist community engagement, and offer practical applications

Contributors to this volume demonstrate how a feminist approach is strategically necessary for the community engagement movement in higher education to achieve its goals and illustrate the transformative potential of merging feminist theory with social action

The position of universities within our society has never been simultaneously more vulnerable nor important. Globally, the purpose and value of higher education in the twenty first century, is being seriously challenged more than ever before. Locally, we are confronted with social and economic problems that continue to plague the previously excluded and marginalised in South Africa. This fact is clearly evident in the location of Rhodes University, situated, as it is, in the midst of poverty, in a town with high unemployment and in one of the poorest and most neglected provinces in the country. This demands of us to ask the question that is currently resonating the world over: What then is the purpose of a university? And while we are attempting to answer this question, specifically for the South African context, we should be aware of the urgency to reimagine ourselves and step up, work collectively to redress the imbalances in our society. Universities do not exist in a vacuum - they exist within a particular social, economic, cultural, political and historical context and are an integral part of the community in which they exist. They shape and are shaped by the milieu in which they exist. Through their mission of knowledge creation, knowledge sharing and knowledge application, they are uniquely and ideally placed to play a critical role in the project of nation-building, social advancement and societal transformation. Given the complex and painful past of our nation that is characterised by centuries of colonialism and decades of apartheid, racial oppression and dispossession and the denial of opportunities to the majority of the citizens of this country, our universities cannot remain 'ivory towers' unconcerned with the daily struggles of those who were systematically excluded from opportunities to realise their full potential. It is our responsibility, indeed our duty, to ensure that we place at the service of our community and humankind the knowledge that we generate. In so doing, we will make it possible for ordinary citizens to become agents of their own emancipation and social advancement. On the occasion of my inauguration as the Vice-Chancellor of Rhodes University, I pointed out that: "If we remain true and faithful to our intellectual project, as we must, we will be able to advance the higher purpose of higher education: to transform individual lives for the better, to transform societies for the better and to transform the world for the better." Indeed, the higher purpose of higher education is to transform lives for the better. Community engagement provides universities with opportunities to deepen and broaden our understanding of the role and purpose of our universities in the creation and sustaining of a better society and a better world. It is only when we build respectful, reciprocal and mutually beneficial partnerships with the previously excluded communities and draw on the different kinds of knowledge that reside in these communities that our knowledge project can start to respond meaningfully and appropriately to the cause of building and sustaining a more just, a more humane, a more caring, a more equitable, a fairer, a more compassionate and more inclusive society. Our University has committed itself to four guiding principles that will drive all our endeavours as an institution of higher learning. These are: • Sustainability – we need to ensure that the principle of sustainability permeates every aspect of our academic endeavour and every decision taken by our university. In the process, we want to produce graduates with an elevated sense of awareness and responsibility in building and sustaining sustainable communities. • Simultaneous local responsiveness and global engagement – our academic endeavour should seek to respond to the pressing and urgent local challenges while simultaneously contributing to our accumulated global stock of knowledge. This will allow us to enter the global knowledge system from our position of strength. • Advancing social justice – given the painful past of our country characterized by exclusion and denial of opportunities for some segments of our society, it is vitally important that we do all we can to restore the dignity and humanity of those who were treated as less than human by the previous dispensation. • Advancing the public good purpose of higher education – our university does not exist in a vacuum. It exists within social, cultural and economic milieu and has an important role to play in lifting the standard of living of our local community. These four principles should guide all academic endeavours in teaching, research and community engagement for the realisation of a society free of hunger, want, inequality and despair. And may it serve as a significant stepping stone towards placing community engagement on a more solid philosophical and moral footing. This publication is packed with a number of exciting and innovative case studies that amply demonstrate that Rhodes University is at the forefront of engaged scholarship and the nurturing of young, talented, committed and engaged citizens. All these initiatives are anchored on the five important pillars of community engagement – mutual respect, reciprocity, mutual benefit, co-creation, and sustainability. We thank all our colleagues and students who go above and beyond the call of duty to contribute in a very meaningful way in transforming the lives of our local community for the better. We are deeply grateful to our Community Engagement Office for enabling and facilitating the interaction between the Rhodes University staff and students and our local community. A word of deep gratitude and sincere appreciation to our community partners who are ever prepared to welcome us with open arms and are always ready to offer our staff and students a different kind of education to the one available within the walls of a lecture room. Our sincere appreciation and gratitude also to our Communications & Advancement Division for seeing to the production of this fabulous publication. I have no hesitation in strongly recommending this publication to all who share our vision of a better society and a better world and are committed to working with courage and conviction to the realisation of a society and a world of our dreams.

"Communities are dynamic and complex ecosystems that are constantly developing, changing, and evolving. The stories in this book bring forth an array of new ideas and questions for public health leaders about the important role and inherent power of communities in advancing better health for all"--

Community engagement through service learning has become well institutionalized in American education, yet there has been considerable debate over its effectiveness, especially with regard to its impact on explicitlypoliticalengagement. While participation in community service and volunteerism clearly has a positive impact on the propensity of young people to dedicate themselves to further service, the evidence of the effects of service onpoliticalengagement is, at best, mixed.

ABSTRACT  In this review essay, the merit of three community‐engagement programs directed by anthropologists—the University of Minnesota's Urban Research and Outreach/Engagement Center (UROC), the University of Maryland‐College Park's Cultural Systems Analysis Group, and the University of Texas at Austin's Division of Diversity and Community Engagement—are explored. I consider the intellectual and practical lineages from which these programs draw and their impacts on community‐service provision.

While the different forms of student-community engagement emerge from a range different histories they share the aim of developing more rounded and competent professionals and value both academic and practitioner knowledge. Although such programmes are not new they are becoming more significant internationally, particularly in relation to questions of citizenship, employability and social justice. During the next decade within higher education we will need to find innovative ways to do more with less. The papers in this issue provide examples of some of the ways in which colleagues have been a

This article focuses on the best practices for faculty members as they engage in community-based research and work. The field of sociology is used as a frame, demonstrating the community engagement inherent in the discipline that offers the support, guidance, pedagogical tools, and professional outlets for faculty who are committed to taking part in the engaged scholarship of linking professional efforts to the larger community. Best practices in terms of faculty review, rank and tenure policies, and commitment to amenable scholarship models (such as the Boyer approach) are considered to assist such faculty wanting to take part in community-based work.