Department of Sociology offers major in ‘Community Innovation Capstone Design’
Showing potential for ‘college-community linked education’
Presented blueprints for ‘humanities and sociology college education’ outside of industry-academic cooperation focusing on engineering
[February 28, 2019]
Regular classes operated by YU (President Sur Gil-soo) are receiving attention as a new type of college education.
This is the ‘Community Innovation Capstone Design’ class that the Dep. of Sociology began offering as a major. Students that take this class do not sit in a fixed lecture room, but instead investigates and interacts with nearby communities such as in Daegu or Gyeongsan for one semester to find problems on their own and set up projects to participate in projects such as urban regeneration, town-making, creating local cultures, etc.
In the second semester of the 2018 school year, 18 students of the Dep. of Sociology participated in the class under the theme ‘Finding Traces of Modern Historical Culture of Gyeongsan’. They split up into four teams and engaged in the project with local residents of the old downtown area of Gyeongsan (today’s Seosang-dong, Gyeongsan) to reinvestigate Seosang-dong Village and the old streams and sites, finding the capital of Gyeongsan, reinvestigating the cobalt mines, and reinvestigating modern industries. They met with local residents to hold interviews and they examined materials to search for local activation plans and to produce pamphlets to share lesser-known historical facts such as the cobalt mine massacre.
Jung Young Wook (23, Department of Sociology, junior) who participated in the second semester class of 2018 said, “It was a new experience outside of the classroom. I was able to think about various things by integrating the theories and critical views that we learned in class in our community. There were many trials and errors while working on the project, but it was a valuable experience that made it possible to improve problem-solving skills.”
<Pamphlet of the Gyeongsan cobalt mine massacre produced by students who took the ‘Community Innovation Capstone Design’ class>
YU Department of Sociology Professor Jung Yong-gyo who oversaw last year’s ‘Community Innovation Capstone Design’ class explained, “This class showed the possibility of utilizing the specialized human resources of the university and the creativity of the students for energizing the region and the success of urban regeneration projects through integration with economic and social circumstances. This goes beyond the many engineering-oriented industry-academic cooperation projects and acts a new education model of college-community linked education in the humanities and sociology.” He added, “It will not only provide the cornerstone for community development, but also enhance student understanding on the community and contribute in improving capacities as local experts.”
The ‘Community Innovation Capstone Design’ course is being carried out with the support of the YU (LINC+) project team and YU published a book containing the results of the classes of the second semester of the 2018 academic year titled ‘Community Capstone Design - Finding Traces of Modern Historical Culture of Gyeongsan’ (Hansol Publication Company, book cover on top left).
