Co-creating knowledge for Social Justice

This seminar examines the co-creation of knowledge as a critical practice within the Scholarship of Engagement, drawing on a Participatory Action Research (PAR) study conducted in Lambert’s Bay, South Africa. In a context shaped by inequality, marginalisation, and limited access to services, the study foregrounds community members as co-researchers and co-designers of a community-based substance abuse intervention programme. Through iterative cycles of engagement including needs identification, capacity strengthening, community mapping, and stakeholder collaboration the research demonstrates how locally grounded knowledge can inform contextually relevant and sustainable responses to complex social challenges.

The findings highlight that meaningful participation fosters ownership, strengthens social cohesion, and builds community capacity, while also challenging conventional expert-driven models of intervention. Engaging with Bronfenbrenner’s socio-ecological framework, the seminar illustrates how substance abuse is embedded within interconnected systems of poverty, inequality, and social dislocation, requiring multi-level, collaborative responses. The study further reflects on the tensions inherent in co-creating knowledge, including power dynamics, competing agendas, and the practical complexities of participatory work. Positioned within post-apartheid South Africa, this seminar argues that universities have an ethical and transformative role in facilitating engaged scholarship that centres community voice, disrupts knowledge hierarchies, and advances social justice. It offers critical insights for scholars and practitioners seeking to build equitable partnerships and coproduce knowledge that leads to meaningful, sustained change.

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