Course overview
In recent years, community engagement has become a central dimension of governance as well as policy development and service delivery. However efforts to directly involve citizens in policy processes have been bedevilled by crude understandings of the issues involved, and by poor selection of techniques for engaging citizens. This course will provide a critical interrogation of the central conceptual issues as well as an examination of how to design a program of effective community engagement. This course begins by asking: Why involve citizens in planning and policymaking? This leads to an examination of the politics of planning, conceptualisations of "community" and, to the tension between local and professional knowledge in policy making. This course will also analyse different types of citizen engagement and examine how to design a program of public participation for policy making. Approaches to evaluating community engagement programs will also be a component of the course.
Course learning outcomes
- To develop knowledge and understanding of content and techniques of community engagement at local to international levels
- To locate, analyse and synthesise information about the diversity of community engagement approaches in a planned and timely manner
- Develop ability to apply effective, creative and innovative solutions to governance problems that require community engagement
- Via use of problem solving and critical thinking exercises using community engagement case studies, develop teamwork, and interpersonal skills
- To critically evaluate the efficacy of virtual means of delivering or developing community engagement strategies
- To encourage via independent learning exercises, development of skills that will enhance the fulfilment of ongoing and continuous learning and intellectual curiosity
- By use of role model examples, demonstrate how community engagement can perform leadership functions within community
- Develop understanding of cross cultural contexts and nuances/implications community engagement