Higher Engagement and Civic Engagement: 
Comparative Perspectives 
Lorraine McIlrath, Ann Lyons & Ronaldo Munck (eds), Palgrave 

Macmillan, New York, 2012, 268 pages

Higher engagement and civic engagement is a broadly conceived, 

readable introduction to engagement in the higher education 

sector. The book’s foreword and introduction provide clear contexts 

for contemporary university engagement from an international 

point of view. 

In a world in which the north–south divide is arguably 

becoming more pronounced, where capitalism’s economic 

cycles continue to generate crises such as the GFC and where 

globalisation has unequal impacts across the world, societies 

struggle with problems ranging from climate change to youth 

alienation. These challenges are knowledge intensive. Universities 

are knowledge-intensive institutions that have vital roles to play in 

addressing these challenges.

Civic engagement, the foreword notes, is not an add-on or 

something that primarily generates warm and fuzzy feelings. It is, 

or should be, a core function of the modern university. It should 

be seen as one of the three areas of university activity: teaching 

and learning, research, and engagement, or at the very least be 

embedded in the other two spheres.  

Pedagogically, and in terms of international networking, 

universities have much to gain through civic engagement. 

Higher education is central to the formation of engaged, critical 

and global citizens. These citizens contribute to the evolution of 

‘cosmopolitan communities of community activists’ as well as 

to the professions, which has implications for conceptualising 

models of civic, community and other engagement. Further, the 

‘massification’ of tertiary education – involving the growth in 

socioeconomic diversity among students, rapid technological 

change, social networking and the knowledge economy’s 

increasing demand for high-level skills – has a complex 

relationship with engagement.

The entangled relationship between higher education, the 

state and the private sector has other implications for engagement. 

The nature of research in universities, for example, is changing. 

Application, rather than academic imperative, is driving more 

and more of the research conducted, and therefore engagement 

Gateways: International 
Journal of Community 
Research and Engagement
Vol 6 (2013): 231–32
© UTSePress and the author

ISSN 1836-3393

Pauline O’Loughlin



232 | Gateways | Review

needs to be considered in terms of community need. The focus has 

to shift from knowledge economies to knowledge societies (p. xiv). 

As noted in the foreword, ‘If the university is not an ivory tower, 

nor an extension of the business world, then it needs to be socially 

embedded’ (p. xvi).

The collection is divided into three sections. The first 

covers context and concepts. Chapter 1 discusses the ‘glocally’ 

grounded university, with a focus on North Dublin, arguing that 

globalisation only becomes operationalised at the local level. 

Looking at South Africa, Chapter 2 examines higher education as a 

driver for social transformation. Chapter 3 explores alignment and 

its role in achieving civic engagement agendas in Ireland, and the 

last chapter of the section discusses civic engagement in the West.

Section two – manifestations and issues – looks initially, in 

Chapter 5, at community-based participatory research through 

the lens of a case study of the Boilerhouse at the University of 

Queensland in Australia. Chapter 6 examines the benefits of civic 

engagement to students and universities, while also discussing 

the difficulties of developing an international language of 

engagement. The following chapter considers student volunteering 

through the ALIVE program at the National University of Ireland. 

Chapter 8 focuses on service-learning from a community partner 

perspective. 

Section 3 reflects on practice. The University of Grenada 

provides a case study of faculty use of service-learning pedagogy 

in Chapter 9, while the following chapter reports on the results of a 

survey of civic engagement activities in Irish higher education. The 

Latin American experience is treated in Chapter 11, and service 

and community engagement at the American University in Beirut 

is the focus of Chapter 12. The final chapter provides a case study 

of the Beacons for Public Engagement project in the UK.

Usefully, this book contends and clearly demonstrates 

that civic engagement is not a ‘one-size-fits-all’ pedagogy. It 

acknowledges continuing difficulties in the field. Civic engagement, 

community engagement and service-based learning can have 

different meanings in different places over time and the terms are 

sometimes conflated. The point here, perhaps, is to acknowledge 

the historical, cultural and geographical contexts in which 

engagement occurs rather than become bogged down in debates 

over definitions. There also needs to be more open discussion 

about the politics of civic and other forms of engagement which 

can range from radicalism to conservatism. All this is encouraged 

by the editors and authors of this book, which is an original and 

provocative contribution to an emerging field.