ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the various challenges in doing engaged community-based research as an academic whose core role is viewed as publishing and supervising postgraduate students. The Urban Futures Centre (UFC) at the Durban University of Technology has, as one of its key principles, a commitment to doing engaged research. This means that our research is very often driven by social problems identified by groupings external to the university, and our manner of doing research is participatory. The UFC has demonstrated, through its various engagement projects, that contrary to traditional understandings, being involved in such projects increases both the quality and quantity of research outputs. This is not to say that there are not challenges in doing engaged scholarship. It is time consuming, emotionally draining, and can be resource intensive. Engaged scholarship also requires developing networks of actors who have shared objectives. In this chapter, I particularly talk to the UFC’s involvement in establishing the first Opioid Substitution Therapy Demonstration Project in the country. While this project has generated significant public attention (mostly positive), it has also required ongoing attention (taking time away from more “traditional” academic activities), and careful consideration of ethical issues given that people who use drugs are a key population grouping. Engaging in projects like this also requires continual advocacy and dialogues with key groupings including the police.
