Community engagement : towards community as governance

Abstract

Community engagement is argued to provide government decision makers and policy developers with the ability to enhance services to the community through improved communication engendered by integrated interaction with the community. Aimed to provide an integrated and in-touch interface between citizens within the community and government, community engagement is a recent addition in a line of community-government initiatives. However, community engagement presents as a concept dualistic in nature and operationalised within ambiguity. Drawing on the extant literature and case studies, this paper unpacks the various definitions and practices surrounding interactions with community and government to provide a fundamental clarification of community engagement.