Western democracies are characterised by a significant level of distrust and widespread feelings of disenfranchisement amongst ordinary citizens. The rise of populist political parties, figures and movements reflects the gradual development of a strong and increasingly vocal anti-establishment sentiment amongst millions of people who feel that the ideas and actions of political elites and experts are at odds with and do not represent their own lives. As sites where political elites are educated and socialised, universities (and the knowledge they produce) have a role in both causing and potentially solving this democratic deficit. There is a role for universities to alter their epistemological practices in ways that respect and give voice to the multiplicity of experiences, beliefs and issues in the world. There is also scope for universities to engage in civic education both on and off campus. This thesis reflects on an experiment that attempted to do this, applying the principles of philosophical pragmatism and the democratic vision of John Dewey in a participatory research project in east London to convene publics of citizens around pressing social issues and develop their power to effect change. This experiment highlighted the importance of having an underlying, place-based, civic infrastructure comprising relationships and sociality to do this work. There were further challenges in adequately respecting pluralism in a diverse world, and building citizen power in a context where experts are deemed to know best. The thesis ends by examining the wider lessons of this experiment. It looks at the potential of community-university partnerships to act as vehicles for democratic renewal, arguing that universities have the potential to re-cast themselves as mediating institutions to facilitate democracy in their local communities.

Community-university partnerships have become more prevalent to support community-based research, especially as a collaborative approach to research with Aboriginal Peoples in Canada. One practice is the activation of a community-based research steering committee to initiate, govern, and review research pertaining to their local community. Within literature related to community-based research, perspectives on capacity strengthening and co-learning from the members of a community-based research steering committee are under-represented. A qualitative case study approach was used to explore the research question: What are the experiences of the Alexander Research Committee (ARC) members in defining and operationalizing capacity strengthening and co-learning across multi-sectoral research projects? Nine current and past members of the ARC participated in individual semi-structured interviews and five of these ARC members also participated in a subsequent focus-group discussion. Analysis of these qualitative data indicated that foundational relationships and a conducive learning environment are key factors for a community-based research committee to experience co-constructed knowledge and learning. The findings of this study highlight the importance of an operational foundation of trusting relationships in order to establish and sustain a working environment where a community-based research committee can learn together and from each other. This study also yielded insights about how this community-based research committee predicated capacity strengthening from the understanding that ‘we are all learners’, with each member bringing forward unique strengths, questions and growth to the research processes. / Graduate

The purpose of this study was to explore the connections between Sport for Development and Peace (SDP), service-learning, and community-university partnerships through the implementation of the Service-Learning: Sport and Community Development (SCD) class. It was my hope that this research would produce a usable model, a framework for other scholars and practitioners interested in developing community-university partnerships. I wanted this project to not only answer the “why” questions for SDP and service-learning, but also the “how” questions – specifically, how to create a reflexive and collaborative partnership that balances the needs of the community and university. I wanted to create something riveting and real, something inspiring and authentic, and something more inclusive than a first-person programmer or instructor account of the experience (Darnell, 2007; Eyler & Giles, 1999; Millington, 2010; Stoecker & Tryon, 2009). Much like the goals of the class, this research was designed to stimulate and encourage others to move toward a more critical and engaged community agenda. To do that, I needed to create a research text that readers could “keep in their minds and feel in their bodies the complexities of concrete moments of lived experience” (Ellis, 2004, p. 30). For that reason, I chose narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) as the primary method of representation, coupled with performance narratives (Denzin, 2003) and poetics (Glesne, 2006; Ely, 2007). Based on the data collected from 49 qualitative interviews, 500 pages worth of reflective journals, and 200 pages of electronically recorded field notes, I created a visual community-university partnership model that illustrates the connections between SDP and service-learning as implemented in the SCD class. In addition to the visual model, I constructed narratives to detail the progression of the SCD experience over time, beginning with the common language of sport and ending in complete investment and reciprocity. As a result of this research, it has become clear that if implemented with intentionality, careful consideration, community collaboration, and reflexivity, that sport-based service-learning initiatives can enhance student learning, improve community welfare, and strengthen ties between the community and the university.