Submitted by: Jessica Gordon-Nembhard, Professor, Community Justice and Social Economic Development in the Dept of Africana Studies at John Jay College
To read online: “Theorizing and Teaching Democratic Community Economics: Engaged Scholarship, Economic Justice, and the Academy.”
This chapter is from the book: “Engaging Contradictions: Theory, Politics and Methods of Activist Scholarship”, edited by Charles R. Hale, pp. 265-297. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
The editor says:
“Scholars in many fields increasingly find themselves caught between the academy, with its demands for rigor and objectivity, and direct engagement in social activism. Some advocate on behalf of the communities they study; others incorporate the knowledge and leadership of their informants directly into the process of knowledge production. What ethical, political, and practical tensions arise in the course of such work? In this wide-ranging and multidisciplinary volume, leading scholar-activists map the terrain on which political engagement and academic rigor meet.”
Dr. Gordon-Nembhard is a political economist specializing in community economics, Black Political Economy and popular economic literacy. Her research and publications explore problematics and alternative solutions in cooperative economic development and worker ownership, community economic development, wealth inequality and community-based asset building, and community-based approaches to justice.
This chapter was used with the author’s permission.