Navigating inclusion and legitimacy in campus-community environmental partnerships to advance urban social-ecological resilience

Abstract

Campus-community partnerships can play a vital role in environmental education by providing universities opportunities to engage diverse communities, but challenges often emerge when research centers leverage their legitimacy as a purveyor of expertise while embracing inclusive engagement practices. While previous campus-community partnership studies have treated inclusion and legitimacy separately, we developed the Legitimacy-Inclusion Engagement Gradient (LIEG) framework, based on a year of participant observations of meetings and workshops of a university urban ecology center and 38 interviews with center members and partners, to investigate the opportunities and tensions that emerge when a center utilizes more inclusive engagement narratives. We observed universities are more adept at enacting legitimacy and that inclusive partnership practices vary substantially. We provide insights into how inclusion and legitimacy can be navigated to advance urban social-ecological resilience. Findings have implications for universities seeking to build campus-community partnership during a pandemic-induced economic downturn and anti-racist social movements.

Keywords:

• Environmental education
• urban ecology
• resilience
• community engagement
• inclusion
• legitimacy

Disclosure statement

In accordance with Taylor & Francis policy and my ethical obligations as a researcher, we are reporting that we have no financial interests in the enclosed paper.

Notes

1 Names removed for peer review.

2 The aim is paraphrased and the exact mission of the center will be stated if the manuscript is accepted.

3 These are not their real names—pseudonyms are used for the peer review process.