Reciprocity+for+what+Supporting+cooperation+and+democratic+engagement+between+university+community+partners

Brandon Kliewer, Civic Engagement Post-Doctoral Associate, University of Georgia [brandon.kliewer@gmail.com]
 * Reciprocity for what? Supporting cooperation and democratic engagement **  **between university-community partners **

**Keywords: ** Cooperation, reciprocity, community engagement, partnership, assessment rubric

**Track: ** Community partnerships and reciprocity

**Format: ** Research paper **Date & time: **Friday 9:30-10:40 **Location: **Salon 12

**Summary: ** Accepting that a connection between community engagement and larger social movements exists, one needs to account for the types of partnerships that support cooperation. Successful social movements support high levels of cooperation and are able to overcome internal and external obstacles by creating incentives for individuals to support collective arrangements. Up to this point, the predominant theoretical method in community engagement research, phenomenology, lacks the methodological precision to capture the subtle nuances of reciprocity in community engagement theory and practice. The purpose of this conceptual research is to highlight the methodological limitations of phenomenology, while presenting an assessment rubric of reciprocity that is grounded in sound social science research.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Community engagement would benefit from a dynamic account of reciprocity that informs the concept from a variety of perspectives. As a result of the methodological limitations of phenomenology, the community engagement field has struggled to develop meaningful assessment rubrics of university-community cooperation in the context of community engagement. This research presents a historical survey of the literature related to understanding reciprocity as it relates to cooperation in social and political spheres. A meaningful community engagement assessment rubric of reciprocity will be grounded in sound empirical social science and be informed by theory. An assessment rubric based on empirical social science will advance community engagement theory and practice. This article contributes to the scholarly research by focusing on the cooperative elements of reciprocity in university-community partnerships.

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<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Gintis, H. S. Bowles, R. Boyd, & E. Fehr. (2005). //Moral sentiments and material interests: The// //<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">foundations of cooperation in economic life //<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Olson, M. (1971). //The logic of collective action: Public goods and the theory of groups.// Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (Original work published In 1970).

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<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Tilley-Lubbs, G (2009). Good intentions pave the way to hierarchy: A retrospective autoethnographic approach. //Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning//. 59-68.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Worrall, (2007). Asking the community: A case study of community partner perspectives. //Michigan// //<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Journal of Community Service Learning //<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">. pp. 5-17.

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