Ubuntu: Locality-Based Small-Scale Social Development through a University- Community Partnership: An Autoethnographic Approach
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2020-10
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This study focuses on revealing the process of founding a small-scale locality-based
social development organization called Ubuntu Family-Based Child Support Initiative
(hereafter referred as Ubuntu for short), which was established by me (the researcher)
in collaboration with faculty members at Ambo University, in Ambo town, Ethiopia.
Ubuntu’s social development program was intentionally initiated and organized as
part of social work practice and community engagement to address the needs of poor
and vulnerable families. Using autoethnography as the principal research method, the
study reveals my journey while I executed the day-to-day activities of the Ubuntu
social development organization. This action-oriented autoethnographic study
employs multiple data collection instruments such as key informant interviews, focus
group discussion, informal conversations, field notes, and document review. The
findings reveal that employing the Asset Based Community Development (ABCD)
approach was effective in founding and promoting a locality-based social
development organization to address the needs of families living in extreme poverty.
The overall Ubuntu experience mobilizes and engages stakeholders for effective
locality based social development. The Ubuntu Service User Families (USUFs) have
been committed to improve their living condition through income generating activities
when they learned that, it is their fellow citizens who were supporting them compared
to foreign or government aid. The emergence of Ubuntu in Ambo University also
served as a bridge to create a functional University Community Partnership (UCP) to
bring about mutual benefits for the University and the local community. Key findings
include the indispensable catalytic role of an academic-practitioner, the support of
university leadership, and collaboration with multiple stakeholders in founding a
legally registered social development organization within a public university. The
Ubuntu experience affirms the possibility of replicating a similar locality-based social
development organization in other universities in Ethiopia.
Keywords: Autoethnography, Ubuntu, Social Development, Asset Based Community
Development, University-Community Partnership, Academic-Practitioner, Ethiopia.
Description
Keywords
Autoethnography, Ubuntu, Social Development, Asset Based Community Development, University-Community Partnership, Academic-Practitioner, Ethiopia.