Labs of Contextualized Urban Social Work
How to guide students in the field
Engaging with residents
While students are often accompanied by residents in this phase of the project, it is very enlightening to talk to strangers they encounter on the route of the Jane's Walk. Try to get students to do this in your neighbourhood by offering them some questions they could ask:
- What is it like to live in the neighbourhood?
- What do they like most about living in their neighbourhood?
- What would they like to improve in their neighbourhood?
Neighbourhood Walks
The third and final community technique you can use to get students and residents active in the neighbourhood is a neighbourhood walk. In our case we draw inspiration from the Jane's Walks. Jane Jacobs (1916 - 2006) stated that the people best equipped to understand urban complexity are ordinary citizens, without professional training.
In this light we also want our students to explore the neighbourhood as such. Our Jane’s Walk is a walked route that crosses neighbourhoods and streets, fostering a dialogue between the people who stroll and those who observe, highlighting the experiences of the neighbourhood residents.
- With Jane’s Walk, we unveil the dynamic city by incorporating the emotional dimension into observation.
- The emotional dimension includes the feelings and thoughts of the neighbourhood's people, providing relevant information about the experience of living there.
- This is possible because we absorb the people, the places, and the objects that make up the neighbourhood.
- Jane’s Walk is about building collective subjectivity and sharing it with the rest of the participants.
Partners
