新作坊 Humanity Innovation and Social Practice

Abstract

No matter in public policies or civic public and common good, it seems that the so-called public implies a homogeneous community. In this way, some social groups with difference such as gender, the elderly, the disabled and the ethnicity will be unintentionally excluded by public participation and decision-making. Such structural predicaments and systematic exclusion of some social groups shall be considered when conducting university-community engagement. This paper aims at illustrating how university-community engagement responses to such exclusion of some social groups by a case study of the Humanity Innovation and Social Practice Project. I adopt Iris Young's perspective of "the politics of difference" to demonstrate how a university team build relations with local communities and how this team creates diverse media to facilitate communication with different social groups and encourage them to realize their capabilities and contribute to community needs. By university-community engagement, social group difference is encouraged to show and create diverse logics and ways of public participation. University-community coworking projects provide opportunities for social groups with difference to reframe their relations with local communities. By doing so, people perceive social groups by their contributions to local communities rather than by stereotypes. Moreover, their difference is important to provide situated knowledge, which is conducive to facilitating mutual understanding and communication with other social groups. This is the foundation for further cooperation and a driving force for transforming into an inclusive society.