What Constitutes Engaged Dialogue in Urban Research? Thoughts From a Long Time “Outside-Insider”

Abstract

In this plenary for the new journal Dialogues in Urban Research, I discuss what constitutes (and should constitute going forward) engaged dialogue in urban research. Engaged dialogue is the process of working collaboratively with groups of people, whoever they are, in relation to particular issues that affect them, to understand those issues better. So what does engaged dialogue in urban research look like? Who is engaging with who, where, why, and how? Has it changed over time? Most, if not all, urban research engages beyond academia, but that engaged dialogue rarely makes it into the pages of academic journals in an inclusionary way. Who usually takes part in conversations on urban research in journals, but also who does not (or is less likely to), and who should? In a new world of publishing and government-funded research that is promoting open access, making research more publicly accessible and inclusive, there has been much less discussion of those engaged in the dialogue that is published. And, if academics do publish with nonacademics it is not usually in an academic journal; this is not inclusive, indeed it is exclusionary.