An Implementation Revolution as a Strategy for Fulfilling the Democratic Promise of University-Community Partnerships: Penn-West Philadelphia as an Experiment in Progress
Open Access
- 1 March 2000
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly
- Vol. 29 (1), 24-45
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0899764000291003
Abstract
In this article, the authors argue that the academic-practitioner divide is largely a product of the Platonic false dualism between “superior” pure theory and “inferior” applied practice. The authors call for a Dewey-inspired implementation revolution to build local democratic neighborly communities as a means for advancing academic-practitioner collaboration, fulfilling America’s democratic promise, and overcoming the influence of Plato’s aristocratic philosophy on American higher education. The authors describe the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Community Partnerships’work with public schools as an experiment in progress designed to advance academic-practitioner collaboration and a “democratic devolution revolution.” Academically based community service learning and research and communal participatory action research are highlighted as particularly useful approaches for improving scholarship and communities and forging democratic, mutually beneficial, and mutually respectful university-school-community partnerships.Keywords
This publication has 4 references indexed in Scilit:
- The University of Pennsylvania's Center for Community Partnerships as an Organizational Innovation for Advancing Action ResearchConcepts and Transformation, 1996
- Lessons from Hull House for the Contemporary Urban UniversitySocial Service Review, 1994
- Physical growth, nutritional status, and dietary intake of African-American middle school students from PhiladelphiaAmerican Journal of Human Biology, 1994
- Participatory Action ResearchPublished by SAGE Publications ,1991