At UCT, engagement or social responsiveness refers to the utilisation of an academic’s scholarly or professional expertise for public purpose or benefit. This includes various forms of engagement with external, non-academic constituencies, including industry, government bodies and NGOs, and occurs through a number of inter-related scholastic activities.
Since much of MtM’s academic activity occurs at the interface of academia, industry and civil society, both in terms of research and education, it is a natural outcome for MtM to be a platform for engagement and a catalyst for new connections and the co-production of new knowledge. This is in line with the principles of the emergent field of Sustainability Science, which aims to promote trans-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder solutions to the complex problems facing the contemporary world. In all cases engagement with external non- academic organisations has served to enrich the quality of MtM activities and led to the co-production of new knowledge also known as ‘engaged scholarship’.
