The Architecture of Service Learning: Questioning Community Engagement

• In Event: 367 - Section on Teaching and Learning in Sociology Paper Session. Connection, Transfer, and Reflection: How Community Engagement Enhances the Sociological Imagination

Abstract

Taking Community Design Centers (CDC) as case studies, this ethnographic research investigates the impact of a type of service learning increasingly found in colleges of architecture. Typically, the CDC is a model of architecture’s civic engagement that makes claims to “give back” to underserved communities and enhance student learning with applied architectural design work. Initial findings suggest there are conflicting intentions and aspirations at work through service learning in architecture and its implementation calls into question who or what is served. The author argues architecture’s epistemology, pedagogical structure, and ideology precludes effective civic engagement.

Author

• Carla Corroto, Radford University