Co-Creation, Reflection, and Transformation. The Social Impact of a Service-Learning Course at the University of Szeged

Abstract

This paper highlights three aspirations, which are shared by the diverse concepts and practices of responsible research and innovation (RRI): co-creation, reflexivity, and transformation. The authors analyse a service-learning (SL) initiative at the University of Szeged, Hungary, based on the model by Chupp and Joseph (2010). This provides a typology of SL practices and identifies four main approaches to the social impact of SL: traditional, critical, social justice oriented, and institutional change-focused approach. The authors also use this model to analyse the effects of their initiative with regard to the RRI principles of co-creation, reflexivity, and transformation. They provide evidence that their SL course may reach beyond its traditional (student-learning-based) effects in the Hungarian context, and embrace social justice and critical approaches. While the authors also found certain instances of institutionalisation, embedding critical SL into a Hungarian university and inducing significant institutional transformation seems to be a long way away.