{"id":2352,"date":"2024-07-19T07:55:55","date_gmt":"2024-07-19T07:55:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/mbhgblog\/?p=2352"},"modified":"2024-07-19T07:57:14","modified_gmt":"2024-07-19T07:57:14","slug":"ruce-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/mbhgblog\/2024\/07\/19\/ruce-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"[:en]To community and beyond: Reflections from the Rhodes University Community Engagement (RUCE) Conference 2024 [:]"},"content":{"rendered":"

[:en] <\/span>Written by Alyce Kapisa<\/span><\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n

Join me on a journey as I travel to the small town of Makhanda in the Eastern Cape, where members of the Societal Impact Task Team (SITT) within Stellenbosch University\u2019s Department of Biomedical Sciences participated in the 8<\/span>th<\/span> annual Rhodes University Community Engagement (RUCE) Conference. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

This year\u2019s theme \u201cCommunity Engagement and the Trajectory of Community-University-Society Relationship: Past, Present and Future Possibilities\u201d <\/span>set the stage for four days of intensive presentations and panel discussions.<\/span>  We spent the four days running around from one presentation to the next; immersing ourselves in a wealth of information while trying to gain as much knowledge and insight as possible, to be able to pass onto our fellow scientists in our department. Where to even begin on the imparting of this information, I don’t know – but I’ll start with how most research articles start… keywords after our abstract.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Throughout the conference <\/span>certain keywords emerged repeatedly: <\/span>community, perception, responsiveness, reciprocal, respect, engaged, transparency, ethics, stakeholders, knowledge building and sharing, Global South<\/span><\/i> and oh, how the list goes on! And with these words and the encompassing theme, we were able to explore so many things that left us with more questions than answers to be honest. As a result, and as a fair warning to all readers, this piece is meant to provoke thought rather than provide answers just as the conference did for those who attended. My goal with this piece, is for all stakeholders in community engagement to seek answers to these questions in their own contexts. Apologies in advance to people who hate question marks, I sincerely tried to limit my use. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

A brief note: the conference attendees were from all faculties across multiple different universities both in South Africa and globally, all the topics discussed could be applied in our various contexts. One thing most of us did have in common though, was the fact that we do research that involves our surrounding communities, and that commonality is what sparked some of the most interesting exchanges I\u2019ve participated in. I am relaying it with the mindset of a scientific researcher, but I really encourage anyone in research to try and apply this in their field of knowledge. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Now, to sum up our very engaging four days. The most informative was Day One in my opinion. On Day One, we were treated to a keynote address which touched on one of the most important parts of the whole conference: the definitions, perceptions and connotations of the word <\/span>community<\/span><\/i><\/b>.<\/span><\/b> Professor Andre Keet of Nelson Mandela University, was the first of many speakers to pose the questions of: what does community even mean, who makes up a community and what is the university’s role in the community? Luckily for everyone reading this, I actually do have an answer for these questions that I think everyone needs to keep in mind. Community includes the university and all the staff and students thereof and I think that is a part everyone, including the general public, forget. So, community is the university, its funders and the general public, in our setting of course. These are all the stakeholders in a community. The concept of community<\/span> is also multifaceted and non-linear. For instance, many conference attendees noted that the image in their mind of a community was not of a middle- or upper-class suburban neighbourhood. Instead, they envisioned a more rural or underprivileged setting. This common narrative about community is limited and does not encompass its full diversity. We need to broaden our understanding of what constitutes a community, starting from a more inclusive perspective. From this I also learned that the university is not meant to serve as an external party, but rather as an internal part of the community that has access to resources that could help the greater community. The university should not be seen as some sort of \u201csaviour\u201d of the community, because that is where a lot of the miscommunication happens when it comes to community engagement. From this comes the conversation of community service versus community engagement. And again, that the people in the university at the end of the day, are also members of the communities that they serve. But does our institutional culture convey that we too are community members or, are we still part of an institution that holds themselves to a higher regard; and sees themselves as removed from the general public? In this context, \u201cgeneral public\u201d refers to individuals that are not staff and students at the university. Interestingly, I\u2019ve noted that we use \u201ccommunity\u201d and not \u201cgeneral public\u201d when engaging in conversation about this particular group of people. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Following the thread of \u201cwho is part of a community?\u201d was one of my favourite conversations about the privilege of being in a higher education institution, despite the background you come from. Students and staff alike, may come from places where they previously benefitted from the resources that the university offered, and now that they are part of the university, do they bring in their perspective of how that impacted them? Do they use this perspective to help improve the way community engagement is done? Or with privilege gained, do we change and again forget that we form part of the community? I think a lot of it comes back to how we view ourselves in this relationship. The rest of the day followed on a similar note, with the topics mostly being about transformation, institutional culture, and responsiveness. Everyone is aware of the history of our own institution, but do we know, and are we aware of the cultures that we practice and how they affect the research that we do and therefore the general public? Are we a responsive university? This means: do we react quickly and positively to changes in our environments, criticism and general negativity? Our university has focused so much on transformation but before our institution is transformative, we as individuals within the institution, need to be transformative people. Do we know how to be transformative and how to combine our individual transformations to make a better university? <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Days Two, Three and Four continued in a similar vein. We touched on the differences between community engagement and community service and were reminded that community engagement should not be likened to philanthropy. Some topics discussed included:<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n