Abstract:

University-community collaboration, although popular in Japan, is mainly considered “regional contribution,” and is, in most cases, short-lived. The author has been engaged in several programs of university-community collaboration for over ten years. In this study, one such program, which she tried to extend beyond regional contribution by giving university students the research opportunity to make such collaboration long-lasting, has been discussed. Although there were already good studies like ‘The Fifth Dimension” (M. Cole) in existence, the author introduced the concept of the “socio-technical network” to make the building of such collaborations more methodical.

The case introduced below is called the “Junior Press project.” It will continue for over nine years. In 2017, seventy children between ten and fifteen years old, who voluntarily applied for the project, engaged in local media journalism.

The significance of the project is examined in relation to undergraduates, participating children, and the local community.

Of course, there are a lot of good effects on the children as well as the local community. Participants learn how to gather and present information on prominent local people, activities, facilities like transportation, and municipal institutions like the city hall and library. They also communicate with other children of different age groups and from various schools, as well as university students. Such communication is very important because they have few such opportunities in Japanese formal education.

Interviewed people and local communities are also pleased at children’s interest in activities and having the chance to present them before larger audiences. The citizen counterpart of the project management also benefits in the form of gets much advantage on human resource and social credibility.

However, the author believes it is the university students who benefit the most from the collaboration. It gives them the chance to apply their theoretical knowledge of social sciences and research skills of participatory observation and field notes, and learn the social skills required to manage a project. In interacting with local people, they also have the opportunity to polish their communication and negotiation skills.

We need a comprehensive plan to make such collaboration fruitful. Accordingly, the author holds preparation and reflection meetings with undergraduates for every event related to the project.

There are numerous difficulties in sustaining such a multi-stakeholder collaboration over a long period. To do so, we need to build a stable socio-technical network that includes proper tools. In this presentation, the author tries to share not only practical but also theoretical perspectives of such a collaboration.

Keywords:

University-community collaboration, undergraduates, research skill, children, media activity, socio-technical network.