Making and Sharing the Commons: Reimagining ‘the West’ as Riverlands, Sydney through a Dialogue between Design and Ethnography

Scholars from the social sciences and humanities are increasingly seeking to improve the relevance and social impact of their research beyond the academy. In this context, ‘designerly’ thinking and methods are being drawn on to inform social change agendas, and a range of new relationships and collaborations are forming around this node of activity. This article critically reflects on this trajectory through a dialogue between ethnography, design and theoretical principles from anthropology and human geography

Conclusion and How to Change the World

Sociologic: Analysing Everyday Life and Culture gives a contemporary foundation to sociology

The creation of the UTS Social Impact Framework: A collaborative approach for transformational change

The relationship between education and public purpose has been historical and remains fundamental to the core mission of the higher education sector. Alongside the growth of engaged scholarship and practice, increasing and, at times, competing forces work to influence institutional focus and direction. Key amongst these are global university ranking systems, which have begun to shift their gaze beyond traditional notions of academic excellence to also consider impact and engagement. The tension between external and internal drivers for social engagement can fragment institutional focus and undermine community impact. In the face of this challenge, holistic institutional frameworks that systemically and culturally underpin, enable and make inherent engaged scholarship remain scarce. Their absence risks marginalising engaged university practice, teaching and research, thereby limiting the potential impact of universities. This article aims to address this gap in the literature by examining the question of how universities can create a whole-of-institution approach to their public purpose agenda. Using the University of Technology Sydney as a case, the development of the UTS Social Impact Framework is shared here. We detail the use of Appreciative Inquiry and Theory of Change as underpinning participatory methodologies that have resulted in a systems approach to change, based on institutional strengths. The resulting framework articulates a shared vision and outlines a guiding roadmap encompassing six domains of change, expressed as outcomes, and an additional three preconditions. Woven together, these create a robust image of the systemic and cultural dynamics needed to realise the shared vision of the university, ensuring that contribution to social outcomes remains a core mission of this higher education institution. The adopted approach used in this study can inform the development of contextually relevant frameworks across the sector, with potential to reposition engagement, beyond an aspect of practice, as a systemic precondition that enables broader social change

How to change the world

Key Features Learn through the voices of real people - student and professional profiles throughout the text show real life examples of situations and expose readers to a wealth of voices and perspectives.Critical reflection questions and ..

Expanding Citizenship: Expanding Our Understanding

Today's world is characterised by complex and interrelated issues that often impact those most vulnerable and marginalised in society. The role of citizens in bringing about positive social change within this rapidly shifting context is widely acknowledged. An abundant range of citizenship programmes and models of community engagement have been developed to enhance the participation of citizens within society. Despite aiming to enable deeper or broader engagement, many of these programmes fail to adequately respond to the changing nature of citizenship. A focus on linear knowledge transfer fails to respond to the dynamic nature of change in an environment where people are more connected than ever before. There is a significant disconnect between the intentions and pedagogy of traditional civics education programmes and the communities and contexts within which they operate. There is now a call for new citizen engagement strategies that better consider the complex and changing nature of society. In this chapter we discuss the development of a new program that aims to respond to this call. As we prepare to create a new citizen engagement program for young people in Western Sydney, we reflect on our previous practice and draw on three key insights that will inform our progress. Namely that citizenship is a collective process; understanding and engaging with power is central to effective citizenship engagement; and Design Thinking can effectively be used to facilitate a process for expanding the active citizenship of young people

Traditional Knowledge Revival Project collaborative web site design

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