The Engaged University and the Specificity of Place: The Case of Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

This paper suggests that sufficient imagination about the role of the university as a place-based actor, in conjunction with conditions of institutional embeddedness and normative alignment of university-community engagement, are minimum requirements for place-specific engagement. To explore this process of alignment and institutional conditions in practice, this paper explores one university's approach to embedding engagement and its sense of place-making in the context of multiple institutional logics. Findings show how the university has attempted to embed engagement by following a protracted consultative process that enabled engagement to be aligned with and integrated into the core functions of the university. Findings also show that engagement continues to be driven, at least partially, by market logics that favour financial imperatives over those of place-making.