Most of our world is experiencing a time of public discontent that now necessitates accomplishing a better and different driver of renewal for our cities and rural places. Let us consider a new approach, rooted in a long-held understanding of the purpose of education, in which the experience develops the student’s critical consciousness and capacity that is integral to the process of social change. To that end, a proposed new type of institution, the University of Participatory Learning and Action (UPLA), would serve the need for community development and innovation.
Academics and Social Change Few academicians in humanities today actively pursue social change as an inseparable part of their research and as a purposeful outcome of their work. Most social scientists stop once they are able to provide explanations for causes of social problems that they decide are most important to the public. Some of them continue to detail inherently top-down solutions based on their analysis of (usually) limited quantitative data gathered from extractive questionnaires and interviews.
Much of this research methodology creates the very attitudes they then measure. Whether a crisis in public health, natural disaster response, or social and economic stability, our resilience depends upon exceptional support for local communities to advance smarter and equitable enterprises. UPLA will be a generator of local people’s projects that they then manage so as to meet community-wide needs in food s.
