大学の社会貢献をめぐる省察 : パワー・インバランスの視点から

Education is viewed as essential for the development of humans, but it does not necessarily bring about happiness. Depending on the aim and method, education can be a source of good or bad. At a glance, this meaning reflects what has come to be seen as a self-evident truth. The same thing can be said about the community service by university. These days, when promoting the community service by university, the persons concerned extol the "university-community partnership" together. Through the equal basis of university with the community, a mutually beneficial relationship is stressed. However the construction of such a relationship is by no means simple. This is because the university came to occupy a position of overwhelming superiority over the community in terms of knowledge, personnel and material resources. This power imbalance currently remains unchanged. Moreover, as universities pursue universality, which is to say universal knowledge, their fundamental characteristics differ from those of the community from the start, which pursues local knowledge. If we consider it acceptable to introduce the authoritative knowledge accumulated in universities into the community with disregard for this fact, it will probably result in the reproduction of relationship of "ruler and subject" between the University and the community on an expanded scale. Above all else, in resolving the issue of power imbalance we must first attempt a paradigm shift concerning knowledge. Accordingly in this research, the possibility of Participatory Action Research was discussed. For as long as the University or the community are in opposition, a power imbalance in operations and administration will be inevitable. In response to this problem the introduction and usage of intermediaries is proposed.