On Public Scholarship

From: "From the Editor: Public Scholarship" by Joseph Harris. College Composition and Communication, Vol. 50, No. 2 (Dec., 1998), pp. 151-152

Rosen:

1. First, the scholar's work is made to be shared with others outside the professional domain of academic inquiry; 
2. second, the quest to know originates in some problem or challenge that could usefully be called "public" business; 
3. third, the others with whom one is inquiring are not limited to experts, policy professionals, academics, or government officials seeking technical advice, but may include all manner of people: 

• neighborhoods trying to build their capacity to work together and achieve common aims; 

• journalists seek- ing a stronger civic identity; 

• communities facing mounting problems that require people to deliberate and cooperate in novel ways; 

• parents, teachers, administrators, students, and concerned citizens wondering why the latest "fix" failed to solve the problems of their schools; 

• police departments and the people they're pledged to serve who want safer streets but no longer believe they can be bought with budgets; 

• librarians who want public libraries to gain a more vital role in the life of the community. ("Public Scholars," Higher Education Exchange, 1997, p. 47)