Review of Community Engagement and Intercultural Praxis: Dancing with Difference in Diverse Contexts

Abstract

Explores discourses related to community engagement work from Nepal, Northern Ireland, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and the United States and presents a framework of critical/interpretive intercultural praxis in order to guide research and practice across the case studies explored. Discusses critical community engagement and dancing with cultural difference--an analytical framework and research itinerary; the United Nations and international nonprofit organization community engagement in Nepal; facilitating community engagement in Northern Ireland; the civic spaces of struggle in Zimbabwe (with Cleophas Muneri); international peace initiatives in Kenya (with Karambu Ringera); evaluating U.S. community-based initiatives that move families out of poverty (with Brandi Lawless); neoliberal resistance and activism for land reclamation--strategic community landscapes in New Mexico (with Jaelyn deMaria); collaborating with a pan-Asian nonprofit in the U.S. Southwest (with Yea-Wen Chen); and dancing with difference across the case studies--the implications for community engagement as critical/interpretive praxis. Collier is Professor of Communication at the University of New Mexico. Index.