2018 Conference

Individual Paper Presentation

When universities aim to be urban ecology partners, one of the key attributes they often seek is legitimacy and inclusion. In the course of my research on universities as urban ecology partners I have encountered both concepts during my time in the field and in interviews. Based on one year of empirical data collection on the ground and analyzing abductively with other academic work that has been done on the concepts of legitimacy and inclusion, this paper seeks to do some analysis of my data through the twin interactive lenses of legitimacy and inclusion. I utilize an interpretive qualitative approach, drawing primarily upon 1) ethnographic research practices and 2) the use of narrative from a social-ecological perspective. In terms of legitimacy, other urban ecology partners - NGOs and local government - often seek to partner with a university to add legitimacy to their efforts. In addition, a university will often frame it’s role in terms of providing the science or the data, which offers legitimacy or credibility towards policy and/or advocacy processes. Regarding inclusion, universities often seek to work inclusively with partners in the community, such as in the neighborhoods and urban ecosystems immediately surrounding the university. This is often practiced by working either in more underserved areas and/or together with NGOs or partners that target underserved populations as beneficiaries. Preliminary results will show how a university is practicing these concepts as well as the perspectives from various other universities and partners on the topics. In addition, through abductive analysis, I will show how universities might be able to navigate inclusion and legitimacy to be better urban ecology partners.