Socially Responsible Higher Education

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://knowledgedemocracydspace.com/handle/123456789/1077

Browse

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6

Citizen engagement in urban governance: Lessons from small and medium towns in India
(Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 2009) Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA)
With the rapid expansion of Indian cities came new pressures on governance, raising difficult questions about how urban institutions could remain accountable and responsive to citizens. This report focuses on the role of citizen engagement in strengthening urban governance in India. This study, drawing on case studies and field experiences, examines how rapid urban growth has reshaped city management and points to the possibilities opened up when citizens are given space to engage with governance. The analysis shows that while policies and structures for participation exist on paper, many citizens, especially those from marginalized groups, remain excluded from these processes due to a lack of awareness, resources, or institutional support. The paper points to the need for deeper trust and stronger channels of dialogue between citizens and city governments to make engagement meaningful. By placing citizens at the heart of governance, the study underlines how democratic processes in cities can become more inclusive, responsive, and effective in addressing the needs of diverse urban populations, positioning participation as the foundation of just and sustainable urban futures.
Citizen report card: Citizen feedback for effective service delivery: An operational manual
(Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 2013) Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA)
Asia is urbanising at a pace faster than ever. The ever increasing population in the Asian cities and the consequent increase in demands for supply of basic services like housing, water, sanitation, health, education etc. pose enormous challenges to the urban local governance institutions. The existing capacities and resources of most urban local governance institutions are over stretched. The situation is exacerbated due to lack of governance reforms leading to enormous deficits in the transparency, accountability and citizen participation – the hallmarks of any democratic governance institutions. The engagement of civil society organisations (CSOs) is pivotal in making the urban local governance institutions transparent, accountable, responsive and participatory. However, the capacities of CSOs to engage and hold the urban local governance institutions are also limited. The project “Deepening Local Democratic Governance through Social Accountability in Asia” aimed to improve democratic practices in urban local governance institutions through social accountability for improving the provision of basic services to the most marginalised families in two Asian cities – Rajshahi in Bangladesh and Takhmao in Cambodia. The project was supported by the UN Democracy Fund (UNDEF) and was implemented by the Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) in partnership with PRIP Trust, Bangladesh and SILAKA, Cambodia. It addressed the deficits of democratic practices, particularly the lack of citizen participation, transparency and accountability mechanisms in municipalities, due to which these institutions often fail to deliver services effectively and equitably and lack responsiveness towards the most marginalised. It made efforts to enhance organised citizen action and participation through mobilisation, capacity building, campaigns and participatory monitoring (using citizen report card and citizen monitoring methods) to ensure accountability. Its endeavours included enhancing citizens’ access to information and basic services by developing partnership with the elected municipalities to establish ‘models’ of social accountability mechanisms, particularly using citizen charters, pro-active information disclosures and public grievance redressal mechanisms. Having harvested the lessons from these interventions at the municipality level coupled with specific policy analysis at the sub-national and national levels, policy dialogues and policy oriented capacity building learning events were organised towards policy changes. It contributed to enhance capacities of local intermediary CSOs through training, exposure visits, on-site coaching and mentoring for implementing various social accountability approaches and tools and also influencing national and sub-national policies on urban governance issues. One of the critical outcomes of the intervention was to systematise the experience of implementing specific social accountability approaches, tools and methods so that the practitioners from CSOs as well as municipal officials could scale up, mainstream and institutionalise these practices elsewhere. Three operational manuals produced through this initiative are significant step towards these purposes. We sincerely hope that the practitioners from CSOs and officials from the municipalities will find these manuals handy and useful.
Fostering social responsibility by higher educational institutions: COVID-19 & Beyond-WEBINAR
(Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 2020-04-08) Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA); Association of Indian Universities
India launch of UNESCO Chair and symposium on “Fostering Social Responsibility in Higher Education”
(Jamia Millia Islamia & Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 2012-12-10) Jamia Millia Islamia; Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA)
PRIA's engagements with higher educational institutions (HEIs): Initiatives in community based research (CBR)
(Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 2014) Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA)
PRIA has engaged with academia in a multitude of interventions, bringing community and practitioner knowledge into the portals of traditional research institutions and processes. By doing this, PRIA has helped Higher Educational Institutions (HEls) realize their social responsibility towards a community's needs and aspirations. This document traces PRIA's work in promoting community engagement within HEls in India and beyond. The experience, garnered over three decades, have been classified into six categories to highlight the different forms PRIA's interventions as a facilitator have taken to build bridges between the world of formal research, the practitioner knowledge of civil society actors and the experiential knowledge of local communities. The experiences discussed in this paper are not intended to be comprehensive; a few specific interventions are described under each category to illustrate the nature of the engagements fostered and the practices promoted.
Teaching participatory research: Making higher education participatory and relevant
(2010) Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA)
The paper argues that inclusion of Participatory Research (PR) in the curricula of institutions of higher education will facilitate its actual practice, thereby contributing to new forms of knowledge production and social change. Participatory Research (PR),as an alternative to dominant social science research methodology and an approach for social change, gained recognition in the 70s. More than three decades later, however, much more is needed for the inclusion of PR in the formal higher education system. This paper highlights the status of PR in institutions of higher education in India; it analyses the viability of its inclusion and presents the challenges it faces across social science disciplines, in degree level courses, as well as in doctoral research. Drawing upon national and international experiences ,the paper explores ways by which higher education institutions in India can include PR in the curriculum and teaching practices .