What do we mean by the term 'socially engaged scholarship'? Enver Motala takes a closer look at this concept - one which situates communities and their members as equal partners working together with researchers for socially useful ends. Who is reading our research? Is it translating (or translatable) to meaningful action in the real world? Does it exist only as theory wrapped in academic language, or can it contribute to positive change?

... how far we are prepared to venture outside the body of academic life and its conventions, the commitments we can make to the radical modes of practice we can pursue. It is this which is both a precondition and an outcome of the development of the actual methods, techniques, strategies for engagement and its purposes.