Growing concern about widening inequalities and a deepening sustainability crisis has prompted new directions and conceptions of the third mission of universities. This paper contributes by drawing attention to the capabilities required to enable mutually-beneficial engagement with community-based partners in resource-poor local settings to not only co-produce scholarly outputs but also co-produce development outcomes. Based on in-depth case study research of three resource-poor communities in South Africa, we identify a set of capabilities that communities need to possess to seek out and engage with suitable partners and to co-learn through their engagement activities. We propose a new framework, a community ‘dynamic interactive capabilities’ (von Tunzelmann and Wang, 2003) framework, extending the concept from firms and universities to local community settings. The framework prompts a fresh way of thinking about the third mission, whereby universities orient their engaged teaching and research activities in ways co-evolved with the capabilities of community partners.

中文翻译：

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通过与大学能力一起建设社区能力来加强大学的第三使命

对日益扩大的不平等和不断加深的可持续发展危机的日益关注促使大学的第三项使命出现了新的方向和概念。本文通过提请注意在资源贫乏的地方环境中与社区合作伙伴互利参与所需的能力做出贡献，从而不仅共同产生学术成果，而且共同产生发展成果。基于对南非三个资源匮乏社区的深入案例研究，我们确定了社区需要具备的一组能力，以寻找合适的合作伙伴并与之互动，并通过他们的参与活动共同学习。我们提出了一个新的框架，一个社区“动态交互能力”（von Tunzelmann and Wang，2003）框架，将这一概念从公司和大学扩展到当地社区环境。该框架为第三项使命提出了一种新的思考方式，即大学以与社区合作伙伴的能力共同发展的方式来定位其参与的教学和研究活动。