Partnerships Literature beyond Disciplines?

[peterlevesque]

From one of our members:

The paper I'm reading has a review of literature on Partnership
Categories, which stops at "interdisciplinary". Do youknow if there's
a literature that goes beyond "disciplines" to more readily
incorporate actual community members? The authors conceptually
include community members in this category, but their research seems
primarily focused on communication/cooperation between Institutions.

This isn't necessarily bad, but it makes me curious about how others
have dealt with the issues/difficulties that arise
when partnerships include a larger number of individuals (who may
never be completely on the same page). Any suggestions/references
Icould check out would be helpful.

Any suggestions?

[peterlevesque]

Hello All -

In response to the question about "Partnerships literature beyond
Disciplines", here are three responses that were sent to me:

1) See the literature on community university partnerships, including:
Community University Partnerships in Practice, Hart, Wolff and
Maddison,
NIACE 2008.

2) The American Leadership Forum which was founded by Joseph Jaworski
offers a new leadership model for addressing the complex problems
facing our society. The program brings together a cohort of
influential community members from different walks of life and puts
them through a rigorous experiential program. Eventually members
collaborate or build connections to address societal problems in their
community. If you are interested in learning about the formation and
evolution of the ALF, the book "Synchronicity: The Inner Path of
Leadership" with a forward from Peter Senge is a wonderful piece of
work.

On its website, the ALF describes itself as " a national network of
chapters, each dedicated to building stronger communities by joining
and strengthening leaders to serve the public good. It enhances
leadership by building on the strengths of diversity and by promoting
collaborative problem solving within and among communities." I could
not find any published material on their site.

The Berkana Institute, founded by Margaret Wheatley is another good
resource on programs that build on partnerships between individuals -
the Berkana Exchange program in particular.

3) Yes there is literature that goes beyond “disciplines” to
incorporate community
members. Different language is used but there is literature on
“Partcipatory
Action Research” (PAR) (e.g. Susan Boser, 2006; Israel et al. 1998;
Shore, 2006
etc.) and Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR) both of whom
refer to
partnerships including community e.g. (Jennifer Brayton; Brayton-
Miller et al.
2004; Gatenby and Humprhies, 2000, Leatherby and Bywaters, 2007;
Maguire et al.
2004; Sullivan et al. 2005).

There is also literature using the language of “communities of
practice” (e.g. Etienne Wenger,
http://www.ewenger.com/theory/index.htm); Smith, M. K. (2003, 2009)).
Other
language and associated literature includes the use of the term
“scholarship of
engagement” which refers to a scholarly agenda that integrates
community issues
(e.g. Boyer, Ernest. (1996); Chibucos, T. R. & Lerner, R. M. (Eds.).
(1999);
Sandmann, L. R., Foster-Fishman, P.G., Lloyd, J., Rauhe, W., and
Rosaen, C.
(2000).