Regenerative Cultures and Resilient Communities (RCx2) Hub
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Date
2019-04
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Ohio State University. Office of Outreach and Engagement
Abstract
The Regenerative Cultures and Resilient Communities Hub (RCx2) is an emerging network of interdisciplinary faculty, staff, and external partners who work through a shared ethical development process. This process posits that capacity is a two-way experience. The capacity of the community and in-country partners is as valid as the need for assessment and building of capacity at Ohio State to effectively and ethically participate in the GSL space. This should not be a hierarchical process, but rather a networked one that can be replicated and scaled out through a package of core content and context knowledge through a horizontal series of relationships in the partnered communities and within our Ohio State community. The RCx2 will research the effectiveness and scalability of the shared ethical development process across contexts. Its consolidated set of curriculum proactively draws upon the diverse pool of disciplinary experts at Ohio State at various layers of the FEWS-health nexus.
Description
The Regenerative Cultures and Resilient Communities ("RCx2") Hub is an emerging network of interdisciplinary faculty, staff, and external partners seeking to create and deliver an exceptional, interdisciplinary global service learning (GSL) experience for students; and in doing so, address the complex challenges and opportunities of sustainable development and building regenerative cultures in impoverished rural communities, grounded in a shared ethical development process working "one village" at a time. The RCx2 understands that a regenerative culture is healthy, resilient and adaptable, caring for the planet and all life in the awareness that this is the most effective way to create a thriving future for all of humanity. Regenerative cultures are locally adapted, while being globally connected through collaboration and knowledge exchange. The RCx2 believes that sustainability is inherently "a dynamic process of co-evolution and a community-based process of continuous conversation and learning how to participate appropriately" in the process of shared ethical development. It accepts that GSL is "a community-driven service experience that employs structured, critically reflective practice to better understand common human dignity…in global contexts." The RCx2 will support GSL programs in communities seeking to address issues of sustainable development within a context of globalization and climate change that are focused on interactions within food, energy, water (FEW)-health systems. The RCx2 Hub is characterized by several key components. First, it works through a shared ethical development process, which posits that capacity is a two-way experience. The capacity of the community and in-country partners is as valid as the need for assessment and building of capacity at Ohio State to effectively and ethically participate in the international and domestic community development space. There is a commonality of development need and community process that transcends the colonial and post-colonial constructs of the nation-state. Second, this process, which is currently being implemented, documented, and reflected upon is not a hierarchical process, but rather a "networked" process. It can be replicated and "scaled out" through a package of core content and context knowledge through a horizontal series of nodal and intersecting relationships in the partnered communities and within our Ohio State community. The RCx2 Hub will research the effectiveness and scalability of the shared ethical development process across contexts. Third, the RCx2 Hub's consolidated set of curriculum proactively draws upon the exceptional network, and diverse pool, of disciplinary experts at Ohio State at various layers of the FEWS-health nexus. Research faculty will examine students’ epistemological commitments and ability to balance technical and social dimensions of GSL while enrolled in "pre-travel" and in-community coursework.
AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Santina Contreras, assistant professor, city and regional planning, Ohio State Knowlton School of Architecture, contreras.78@osu.edu (Corresponding Author); Joe Campbell, lecturer, Ohio State School of Environment and Natural Resources, and director of the Environmental Professionals Network; Xiaofeng "Denver" Tang, assistant professor of practice, Ohio State Department of Engineering Education; Tony Duke, international development worker, cultural activist, and visiting scholar, Queensland University of Technology (Australia)
AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Santina Contreras, assistant professor, city and regional planning, Ohio State Knowlton School of Architecture, contreras.78@osu.edu (Corresponding Author); Joe Campbell, lecturer, Ohio State School of Environment and Natural Resources, and director of the Environmental Professionals Network; Xiaofeng "Denver" Tang, assistant professor of practice, Ohio State Department of Engineering Education; Tony Duke, international development worker, cultural activist, and visiting scholar, Queensland University of Technology (Australia)
Keywords
regenerative cultures, resilient communities, global service learning, community development process
Citation
Engaged Scholars, v. 7 (2019).