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Gateways: International Journal of Community Research and Engagement 
No 1 (2008): 200-201 
© UTSePress and the author 

 

ENGAGED SCHOLARSHIP: A GUIDE FOR ORGANIZATIONAL AND SOCIAL 
RESEARCH, ANDREW H. VAN DE VEN. OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 
OXFORD, UK, 2007; PP 330. 
 

an de Ven‘s book is obviously a labour of love, based on thirty 
years teaching and field experience. It focuses on the concept of 

engaged scholarship, a participatory approach where researchers and 
non-researchers work together to develop new knowledge about 
complex problems. It is primarily directed towards academic staff 
and doctoral students who wish to learn how to engage with diverse 
stakeholders to undertake applied research that crosses disciplinary 
boundaries, providing rigorous and relevant outcomes of a quality 
that is both academically defined and socially accountable. 

The messages relayed here mirror similar arguments expressed 
by Michael Gibbons and others in The New Production of Knowledge: 
The Dynamics of Science and Research in Contemporary Societies (1994) 
whose concept of ‘Mode 2’ research identifies universities as one 
stakeholder among many knowledge producers in a new, more fluid 
and interdependent approach. In company with Gibbons and other 
illustrious thinkers in this area such as Ernest Boyer in Scholarship 
Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate (1990) and ‘The scholarship  
of engagement’ in The Journal of Public Service and Outreach (1996),  
Van de Ven’s discussion on engaged scholarship has the potential to 
considerably broaden contemporary concepts of scholarship within 
the academy. 

Such an approach looks to strengthen the oftentimes-tenuous 
links between theory and practice. In itself this aim should be 
important enough to warrant serious attention not only from 
academics, but also from government policy makers, private sector 
interests and those working in not-for-profit agencies. Practitioners 
have much to gain by using theory to inform their actions, while in a 
self-reinforcing process practical applications can provide important 
feedback and direction to ongoing processes of theory building. As 
Van de Ven argues (p. 35), ‘Scholarship that engages both researchers 
and practitioners can provide an exceedingly productive and 
challenging environment; it not only fosters the creation of 
knowledge for science and practice, but it may dissolve the theory-
practice gap.’ 

Van de Ven uses the ‘diamond model’, comprising problem 
formulation, theory building, research design and problem solving to 

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Gateways, vol 1, 2008 
 
 

201 

illustrate the process orientation through which engaged scholarship 
is conceptualised, implemented and reviewed. The first two chapters 
provide an introductory foundation required for understanding 
application of the ‘diamond model’ of engaged scholarship. Once 
readers have a grounding in the concept, Chapters 3 to 7 then 
describe the practical application of the model. The final two chapters 
provide more detailed discussion on engaged scholarship including 
that stemming from the author’s own experiences. 

This is a well written book that provides an informative and 
accessible guide for researchers with an interest in developing their 
understanding on how they might work collaboratively with those 
outside academia. While the book is grounded in management and 
organisational studies it provides broad direction for those working 
in other areas of social science. 
 
MICHAEL CUTHILL 
UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND