LINC+ Project Team and Suseong-gu of Daegu sings MOU and begins projects for 4 months
Over 20 students from the Department of Sociology participated in town newspaper and storybook production, and environmental improvement activities
[January 4, 2018]
<Clothes donation box and flower garden produces by students of the Department of Sociology for the urban regeneration project>
The urban regeneration project being pursued by YU (President Sur Gil-soo) is receiving attention as a new model for local development projects. The YU LINC+ team signed an MOU with Suseong-gu Office of Daegu in September of last year and began a joint project in town maintenance, urban restoration, and development of cultural tourism contents, which have been received positively by the local community.
The YU LINC+ team established the Community Innovation Department within LINC+ for this project and developed and executed student-participation programs in the community together with the ‘Suseong-gu Happiness For All Urban Regeneration Support Center’.
This project, which has continued for about four months from September to December, was joined by 22 students from the YU Department of Sociology. The students visited different parts of Beomeo 2-dong, Manchon 2-dong, Dusan-dong and Sang-dong to find items for urban regeneration.
Students of the YU Department of Sociology pursued group projects for four months under the four themes of ▲Town newspaper production using blogs ▲Installation of ‘electric pole paintings and conscience flower pots’ in areas with frequent illegal garbage disposal ▲Development of town maps and tourist programs (photo bottom) ▲Finding town stories and producing storybooks.
Students participated directly in the town’s various events and community capacity strengthening programs to make blog newspapers containing the vivid atmosphere of the city, while also interviewing townspeople to produce a town storybook. It was assessed that the young students added a young touch to what they learned by communicating directly with the community to not only promote the town, but also contributed to energizing the area through urban regeneration projects. Furthermore, in order to address one of the biggest urban problems of illegal garbage disposal, the students painted on the walls and electric poles or planted ‘conscience’ flower pots and gardens below electric poles or next to clothes donation boxes, which are common places that garbage is thrown away illegally, to promote proper garbage disposal of residents and help establish a pleasant urban environment.
YU Department of Sociology senior Yoon Dong-seop (24), who participated in this project, said, “This project was a good opportunity to run around the city to identify problems of the community and to look into the community culture.” He added, “We installed ‘conscience’ flower pots with the goal of making clean alleys and because we participated directly from the planning to implementation stages, we became very attached to the outcomes. It was fulfilling as community members responded positively to our efforts.”
Meanwhile, a seminar on the results of this industry-academic cooperation project of YU is scheduled to be held at the Suseong-gu Happiness For All Urban Regeneration Support Center.
