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An increase in community engagement by governments across Australia’s three-tiered federal polity conforms to international trends. It represents a multidimensional institutionalization of participatory democracy designed to involve the public in decision-making. Increasingly, it is a practice which displays the markers of professionalization, including (self-described) professionals, professional associations and a code of ethics. The individuals who design, communicate, and facilitate community engagement are placed in a unique position, whereas most professions claim to serve both their client or employer and a greater public good, community engagement practitioners play these roles while also claiming to serve as “guardians” of democratic processes. Yet the claimed professionalization of community engagement is raising some questions: Is community engagement really a profession – and by what criteria ought this be assessed? What tensions do community engagement practitioners face by “serving multiple masters,” and how do they manage these? More pointedly, how can ethics inform our understanding of community engagement and its professionalization? This chapter examines the case for the practice of community engagement as a profession using Noordegraaf’s (2007) pillars of pure professionalism as a guide. It then explores some practical examples of the tensions practitioners may experience. The chapter concludes by reflecting on the future direction of community engagement given its positioning.

There have been great advances in our understanding of how universities effectively undertake community engagement, with research focused upon understanding community partner perspectives and outcomes (see Andrée et al., 2014; Srinivas et al., 2015; Sweatman & Warner, 2020), and democratic civic engagement (see Hall et al., 2013; Saltmarsh et al., 2009). This chapter builds on these studies to critically examine one university’s capacities to coordinate institutional-level change that supports and advances community-engagement scholarship. A small, rural, undergraduate university in Nova Scotia, Canada, called Acadia University was used as the case study site for this examination. Using an action research case study design, we gathered data from multiple sources within and outside of the University over a three-year period. Through this investigation Acadia’s community-engagement ethos was studied to understand if the University has the assets, resources, knowledge and motivation to create, implement and sustain democratic community engagement initiatives with community partners. From this data, key findings were categorized into three major themes: power and positionality of the University, institutional supports and barriers to engagement, and institutional assessment of community engagement initiatives. This chapter discusses these themes in depth using data from this study and current literature to unpack the practicalities and particularities of an institution committing to a deep, pervasive and integrated community engagement culture. Overall, this study found that Acadia’s community engagement ethos, as it moves towards democratic engagement while navigating systematic internal and external constraints, is diverse and complex. This study contributes to the legitimization of community engagement scholarship more broadly.

This article explores the implications of virtual social spaces for conceptualizing community engagement in the practice of architecture and design by critically analyzing multidisciplinary approaches to conceptualizing community namely space, place, and context to envision social spaces of virtual community engagement by architects and designers.

This conceptual article utilized narrative literature review as the primary method for conducting a transdisciplinary theoretical integration. First, the authors defined the metaverse as all manner of human-technological interaction. Second, the authors discussed theories of place from architecture, social geography, and human ecology and employed neoecological theory to describe the interactional processes inherent in research and practice with virtual communities. Finally, the authors documented specific types of virtual engagement strategies in architectural research and practice.

Virtual environments provide varied opportunities for effective collaborations among architects, designers, and community members. The primary strategies identified by the literature review of virtual community engagement were collaborative, augmented reality, and situated digital experiences. In addition, researchers have found that the most effective community engagement bridges interactions in the physical space and digitally mediated interactions.

The authors advocate for increased research towards understanding how the expanded availability of more complex technological tools, such as future versions of artificial intelligence (AI) software, may further layer the landscape of community engagement in ways that may be unpredictable and currently less understood. Additional research is also needed to address participants' perspectives in virtual community engagement and explore how the building of communities in the meta-context is felt, lived, and understood by those who act in them.

The availability of new technological tools and digital platforms challenges diverse professionals to expand their community-engaged practice into the metaverse. Although not every community has broadband Internet or software access, many physical locations whether community centers, libraries, schools, or one’s own home may serve as safe spaces for novel virtual engagement experiences by individuals and groups. Digital engagement can increase opportunities for involvement from persons who are home-bound, lack transportation or child-care to attend in-person community events, or may desire the anonymity afforded by virtual engagement.

Virtual environments can provide varied opportunities for effective collaboration among architects, designers, and community members by overcoming physical or nonphysical barriers to in-person engagement. For example, recent case studies of civic and community organizations have successfully integrated physical and virtual community engagement during the global COVID-19 pandemic by overcoming physical or nonphysical barriers to in-person engagement. Community development theorists have referred to such contexts as a “post-place community” in which individuals find solidarity through digital global networks.

This article theorizes virtual community engagement in the metaverse from a transdisciplinary perspective and coins the innovative concept of meta-contexts to describe a global “post-place” community. Integrating theories of place from architecture, social geography, and human ecology guides an original review of effective strategies for meta-contextual digital community engagement by architects and designers.

This purpose of this paper is to summarise the outcomes of a recent project in Victoria, Australia exploring the effectiveness of community engagement strategies in improving climate mitigation and adaptation outcomes.

Roundtables and interviews with a diverse range of community engagement practitioners and policy makers involved in climate change work were conducted, informed by a discussion paper outlining recent Australian and international learning about community engagement and climate change.

The project confirms and builds on recent international learning about the importance of carefully planned and implemented community engagement as essential components in effective climate mitigation and adaptation strategies.

The paper brings together learning from recent on‐the‐ground experience from Australian community engagement practitioners and policy makers working in the climate change field. In addition to evidence supporting the international case for community engagement methodologies the paper also summarises a number of factors important to effective climate change community engagement strategies.

This paper aims to examine the development and piloting of a novel European framework for community engagement (CE) in higher education, which has been purposefully designed to progress the CE agenda in a European context.

The proposed framework was co-created through the European Union (EU)-funded project towards a European framework for community engagement in higher education (TEFCE). The TEFCE Toolbox is an institutional self-reflection framework that centres on seven thematic dimensions of CE. This paper follows the development of the TEFCE Toolbox through empirical case study analysis of four European universities and their local communities.

The findings in this paper indicate that the TEFCE Toolbox facilitates context-specific applications in different types of universities and socioeconomic environments. Incorporating insights from engagement practitioners, students and community representatives the TEFCE Toolbox was successfully applied in universities with diverse profiles and missions. The process facilitated the recognition of CE achievements and the identification of potential areas for improvement.

Despite a range of international initiatives, there remains an absence of initiatives within the European higher education area that focus on developing tools to comprehensively support CE. The TEFCE Toolbox and case-study analysis presented in this paper address this gap in knowledge. The broader societal contribution and social responsibility of higher education have become increasingly prominent on the European agenda. The TEFCE Toolbox represents an innovative, robust and holistic European framework with the potential to support universities in reflecting upon their pursuit of addressing grand societal challenges, whilst promoting CE.

This study examines the impact of female CEO on firm community engagement. By drawing on the stakeholder-agency paradigm, the author proposes that female CEOs feel more pressure to deliver favorable firm performance, thus resulting in less community engagement in firms with female CEOs. The author also examines circumstances surrounding the CEO as boundary conditions that can promote the extent that female CEOs engage in community initiatives.

The author collected panel data on a sample of firms listed in the S&P 500 index during the years 2009–2013. The author tested the hypotheses using firm fixed-effects models.

The results show that firms with female CEOs pursue less community engagement. CEO career horizon and CEO unexercisable stock options are boundary conditions that weaken the negative relationship between female CEOs and community engagement, while board independence does not have a significant moderating effect.

This study sheds light on the roles of female CEOs on firm community engagement as a distinct firm strategic action. Furthermore, this study provides a better understanding of the relationship by examining different factors that can promote community engagement by female CEOs, which include CEO career horizon and compensation incentive.

This paper aims to examine the direct and interactive effects of community engagement and economic value on customers’ trust in, and commitment to, the retailer. This paper also examines the extent to which these variables, in turn, drive desirable behavioral outcomes in the form of positive word of mouth communications and share of customer.

Study results are derived from a cross-sectional survey of 1,757 respondents.

The authors find that retailer community engagement positively impacts word of mouth and share of customer indirectly through commitment and trust. As hypothesized, the results support a suppressing interaction between community engagement and economic value on trust. Contrary to the hypothesis, the interactive effects on commitment are positive.

The study uses cross-sectional, single-sourced data. Incorporating secondary data or using experiments would reinforce these findings. This research is limited to local community engagement, future studies could broaden the focus to strategies that benefit communities outside the local area.

Study results indicate that managers can indeed build stronger customer relationships through community engagement as customers are more apt to be trusting of and committed to retailers perceived to be more actively engaged in the community. These findings are particularly important considering that community engagement is typically less expensive than other marketing strategies. Community investments are inexpensive initiatives that retailers can leverage to generate a big impact in the hearts and minds of their customers.

While it seems logical to assume that community engagement will benefit retailers in the form of stronger customer relationships, the authors empirically validate this assumption. The finding that community engagement simultaneously serves as both an antecedent and moderator is novel, albeit counterintuitive in the sense that the variable negatively moderates the economic value-trust relationship while positively moderating the economic value-commitment relationship. Taken in their totality, these findings indicate that community engagement serves to simultaneously drive stronger customer relationships while also differentially affecting the way customers arrive at their assessments.

The current gap in the field of community engagement is evaluation and measurement of the impacts on the stakeholders, mainly the community being engaged with. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper discusses the need to consider the stakeholder's perspective and their involvement in a community engagement initiative, or in any social program. The authors begin by debating the most common evaluation techniques used, followed by re-introducing stakeholder evaluation to the field of community engagement.

The evaluation using the stakeholders’ approach will not only create a holistic evaluation process, but will also assist in fostering a sense of ownership of the community engagement program.

Community engagement is given much importance nowadays in Malaysia, especially in line with institutes of higher learning's tripartite mission, the third mission being the ability to engage with communities. It is not surprising because community engagement offers enormous benefits for regional and societal development. Community engagement relies heavily on partnership and mutual reciprocity between different stakeholders such as communities, universities, non-government organizations, field experts and funding organizations. In order to sustain the engagement initiatives, it is important to know who are the “owners” or stakeholders of the program.

This study aims to examine the association between community engagement, community commitment and sustainability of public–private partnership (PPP) projects in Uganda.

This study adopted a cross-sectional and quantitative approach. Data were collected using a questionnaire from 42 PPP projects in Uganda.

The study found that community engagement and commitment are all positively and significantly associated with the sustainability of PPP projects in Uganda. Results also show that community commitment mediates community engagement and project sustainability.

The study results imply that for sustainability to be achieved, communities must be engaged in project activities such as planning, design and implementation to boost their commitment to project sustainability.

The sustainability of PPP projects is an emerging phenomenon. This paper contributes to scanty literature on ensuring the sustainability of PPP projects from a developing country’s perspective.

Beginning with a brief overview of education in Australia from both an Aboriginal perspective and that which developed after the arrival of European settlers, this chapter asserts the significance of faith communities in shaping school and teacher education in ways which express their worldviews and moral purpose. Reflecting a Catholic understanding and focusing upon the principles of Catholic Social Teaching, teacher education programs at Australian Catholic University incorporate a holistic approach through their course structures, core curriculum and community engagement experiences. These come together as a pedagogy of promise within community engagement based teacher education. The rationale, examples and model discussed here are presented in ways which show the transformative power of this person- and value-centered pedagogy.