University and society: interdependencies and exchange

What role can the university play in the broader community or society in which it is embedded?

Must it remain segregated in the halls of science and knowledge, which tower above the community?

This book examines the growing number of questions and concerns around university-community relations by exploring widely accepted theories and practices and placing them under new light.

From a shared point of agreement that the university is an institution which should move beyond the production of higher knowledge for power elites, the contributors provide critical reflections and reports on efforts to bring about change in the canonic discourse or power-biased attitudes in universities throughout the Northern Hemisphere and Australia.

The central message is that the strengthening of direct relations between universities and communities is vital to the construction of social capital and to the opening of universities to society.

These are processes to be advanced on both local and international levels, as they involve democratizing rather than corporatizing, extending the reach of our educational process, sharing knowledge, resources, and expertise and reinforcing community decision-making and problem-solving capacity.

How these processes of change develop and unfold within a number of universities in a wide range of countries is the story told in this book.

This book will appeal to a wide readership, from students and community activists looking to make education meaningful and cooperative, to educational policy makers, members of the professoriate, and academic administrators, seeking to sustain withering institutions and provide vision for new program developments.