Contribution to Book
The Engaged Communication Scholar: Designing CIT-Informed Engaged Research in Diverse Communities
The Communication Ecology of 21st Century Urban Communities
(2018)
Abstract
In 1952 Kurt Lewin wrote, “There is nothing more practical than a good theory” (as cited in Vansteenkiste & Sheldon, 2006, p. 63). According to Lewin, theorists and practitioners should be linked in a symbiotic cycle—theorists developing concepts to understand social problems, and practitioners providing grounded data to validate or rework theory. Such an ethos is relevant today with the revival of “engaged scholarship”—understood as the application of research to society’s most pressing problems (Boyer, 1996; Burawoy, 2005). “Good theory” is needed more than ever as scholars strategize how to engage with urban communities grappling with issues such as poverty, immigrant integration, and equitable urban development. Because the engagement of diverse urban communities is dependent on good communication acts, it is appropriate that engaged scholarship projects are grounded in communication theory that values the complex dynamics of local community actors and geographies.
Disciplines
Publication Date
2018
Editor
Yong-Chan Kim, Matthew D. Matsaganis, Holley A. Wilkin and Joo-Young Jung
Publisher
Peter Lang
ISBN
978-1-4331-4661-9
Citation Information
George Villanueva, and Andrea Wenzel. "The Engaged Communication Scholar: Designing CIT-Informed Engaged Research in Diverse Communities" New YorkThe Communication Ecology of 21st Century Urban Communities (2018) p. 167 - 186 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/george-villanueva/11/