Abstract
The chapter interrogates the extent to which affiliation can be developed in and through community engagement and service-learning. It scrutinises the kind of affiliation developed given the power differentials among and between partners at the interface of poverty, inequality and privilege given the short-term, sporadic and ad hoc nature of projects. All community engagement and service-learning partners value the capability for affiliation as one of the overarching developed capabilities. Although the interpretations of affiliation differ among and between participants, a common thread that runs through them is that the design, implementation and evaluation of community engagement and service-learning should involve some form of critical affiliation. The capability for affiliation cuts across issues of community engagement and service-learning as a pedagogical strategy, co-learning, co-knowledge generation projects and spaces for values and skills exchange. While the capability for affiliation allows other capabilities and human development values to be fostered, it also enables community engagement and service-learning partners to accord each other dignity and respect.
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Notes
- 1.
Ujamaa was a political, cultural and economic ideology coined by Julius Nyerere to refer to common social and cultural bonds, learning from other cultures and being open towards other cultures. It was built on practices such as dignity, interdependence, interconnectedness, togetherness, inclusion, harmony, humanity and common interest in building and maintaining community (Nyerere 1966).
- 2.
Ubuntu is the capacity of African culture to express compassion, reciprocity, dignity, harmony and humanity in the interests of building and maintain community (Nussbaum 2003).
- 3.
“Othering” is the process of asserting a positive identity by stigmatizing what is different or “other”, viewing people as belonging to either the group referred to as us (people who are the same) or the group referred to as them (people who are different; Osman and Petersen 2013).
- 4.
Vetkoeks or filled fried dough is a popular meal for many people living in the townships of South Africa.
- 5.
Erikson believes that every human child goes through a series of developmental stages from birth to old age. And each human being must find his or her own sense of regulation as a result of the interplay between the inner voice of the child, the physiological and emotional urges of the individual, and the nature of social influences (Batra 2013, 250).
- 6.
Max Weber described three kinds of group relationships. These are class power, which is about a position to exercise power over someone; social power, which entails a belief that some people have to look up to someone and defer to their wishes and commands; and political power, which is about a group that may dominate another through the agency of the state (Saunders 1990).
- 7.
Fertile capabilities refer to capabilities that tend to promote or assist in securing other functionings or capabilities (Wolff and de-Shalit 2007).
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Mtawa, N.N. (2019). Affiliation: The Architectonic Capability in Community Engagement and Service-Learning. In: Human Development and Community Engagement through Service-Learning. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34728-4_5
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