ABSTRACT

This article contributes to conceptualisations of public engagement as part of academic practice in higher education. It uses Hannah Arendt’s idea of action in the public sphere, which is underpinned by the belief that all have the capacity to contribute to the renewal of the world, and that we are equally different. It argues that public engagement should go beyond a one-way flow from the academic to the public and should instead aim to promote engagement towards renewed understandings of all participants. The ideas are exemplified by the practical example of a conference, co-designed and co-organised by the author. It highlights participatory processes of the conference towards generating engagement of a wide variety of participants and considers evidence of the renewal of understandings from such public engagement. The conference is drawn upon to develop a reconceptualisation of public engagement.

摘要

本文有助于将公众参与概念化为高等教育学术实践的一部分。它使用了汉娜·阿伦特 (Hannah Arendt) 的公共领域行动理念，其基础是相信所有人都有能力为世界的更新做出贡献，而且我们都同样不同。它认为公众参与应该超越从学术到公众的单向流动，而应该旨在促进参与以重新认识所有参与者。这些想法以会议的实际例子为例，由作者共同设计和共同组织。它突出了会议的参与过程，以促进各种参与者的参与，并考虑了从这种公众参与中更新理解的证据。