Abstract

BURMAN, Christopher; APHANE, Marota  and  MOLLEL, Naftali. Knowledge as enablement: additional perspectives influenced by complexity. Educ. res. soc. change [online]. 2016, vol.5, n.2, pp.1-17. ISSN 2221-4070.  http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2221-4070/2016/v5i2a1.

This article is prompted by a book called Knowledge as Enablement: Engagement Between Higher Education and the Third Sector in South Africa (Erasmus & Albertyn, 2014). Knowledge as Enablement emphasises that purposefully directed knowledge can contribute to the generation of mutually beneficial, transformative outcomes during community-university partnerships. The book introduces the notion of complexity but provides no specific examples about how complexity influences engaged scholarship or enablement. Drawing on theory and case material that relate to complexity, this article aims to open a conversation about how complexity can contribute to engaged scholarship and enablement. It is suggested that confronting complex challenges using engaged, action-oriented research techniques requires many of the enablers identified by Erasmus and Albertyn (2014). However, some additional enabling layers associated with complexity can be considered. These layers include: (1) roles and responsibilities, focusing on leadership, participation, and praxis; (2) working with complex adaptive systems, including systemic change, sensemaking, and attractors; and (3) identifying and responding appropriately to multi-ontology knowledge contexts.

Keywords : Attractors; community engagement; community-university partnerships; complex adaptive systems; multi-ontology knowledge frames; sensemaking.

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