Universities have become more engaged or entrepreneurial, forging deeper relations with society beyond the economic sphere. To foster, structure, and institutionalize a broader spectrum of engagement, new types of intermediary organizations are created, going beyond the “standard” technology transfer oces, incubators, and science parks. This paper conceptualizes the role of such new-style intermediaries as facilitator, enabler, and co-shaper of university–society interaction, making a distinction between the roles of facilitation, configuration, and brokering. As a case study, the paper presents the Knowledge Mile in Amsterdam as a novel form of hyper local engagement of a university with its urban surroundings that connects the challenges of companies and organisations in the street to a broad range of educational and research activities of the university, as well as to rebrand the street.
Background and purposeWithin Northwest European Welfare states, there is a growing need for all social work professions to substantiate their work with research. The earliest notions of social street work origins from the end of the18th century by the British Salavation Army (Mikkonen et al., 2007). In the Netherlands it’s introduced from the United States (1960s), as a response to individuals and groups hanging around. Social street work is a low threshold and professional form of being there, performed in surroundings and situations where the target group is. It focusses on contact-making and staying in contact with individuals and marginalised groups, who otherwise are hard to reach, have lost their connection with society and have multiple problems. It’s a high appreciated practice, but it lacks a method that is substantiated with research (Morse et all, 1996; Kirkpatrick, 2000). In this paper we will present conceptual model of the method of social street work, that’s substantiated with experiences from professionals and the target group.MethodThis paper is based on a combination of literature review, document analysis, Delphi Method and an online questionnaire among the target group. The research is conducted at Streetcornerwork in Amsterdam. Streetcornerwork is the only organization in the Netherlands that provides social street work, since WWII. They employ 175 professional social street workers and has 43 years of experience in social street work.First, a theoretical model of social street work is developed bases on literature review, analyses of documents of the establishment (1970-1990)of social street work (Netherlands) and different attempts to describe the method (1991-2017). Second, the explanation model is strengthened with data from the online questionnaire among 1600 clients of Streetcornerwork. Third, the Delphi Method is used to validate the model with the tacit knowledge of 24 professionals.ResultsThe result is a conceptual model of the method of social street work that is substantiated with experiences from professionals and the target group. Characteristic is that it’s an open approach in contact with the target group which is highly dependent on context and has unpredictable character (Metz, 2016 , Andersson, 2011).The method social street work consists of 14 methodic principles,. Social street work contributesto the development of self-insight and general life skills, the restoration of the social network and the improvement of living conditions and the well-being of the target group. We also gain insight in the experienced contribution of social street work from persons in the environment of the target group (client system, neighborhood and institutional environment). This experienced contribution of social street work at theenvironment is divided into the direct contribution and the implicated contribution through the target group.Conclusions and implicationsThis conceptual model of the method of social street work contributes to a body of knowledge. We made tacit knowledge explicit and we can legitimize the profession of social street work. Because research is done in close collaboration with street workers, it also contributes to the development of their work.
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De doelstelling van de gymles op het voortgezet onderwijs is dat jongeren deelname bekwaam worden gemaakt om nu en in de toekomst deel te nemen aan een beweegcultuur. Welke beweegcultuur (bijv. sportvereniging, sportschool of bewegen in de openbare ruimte) passend is, is afhankelijk van welke beweegidentiteit een jongere ontwikkelt. Ondanks dat alle jongeren gymles krijgen op school, voldoet slechts 50% van de jongeren aan de beweegrichtlijn van 60 minuten per dag en dus neemt de helft van de jongeren niet op regelmatige basis deel aan een beweegcultuur. Het curriculum van de gymles is van oudsher voornamelijk sport georiënteerd, wat niet voor alle jongeren aansluit bij hun beweegbehoeften. Ook de naschoolse initiatieven vanuit gemeentes zijn veelal gericht op doorstroming naar een sport(vereniging). Uit het vraagarticulatie traject blijkt dat docenten Lichamelijke Opvoeding in grote steden niet goed weten om te gaan met de toenemende diversiteit van jongeren in hun gymles, terwijl de kwetsbaarheid van jongeren groter is dan in andere lessen, omdat leerlingen samen omkleden, schaarsere kleding dragen, in de etalage (kunnen) staan tijdens het bewegen en fouten direct zichtbaar zijn. De diversiteit (bijv. cultureel of gender) tussen leerlingen en het verschil tussen de school en de thuis/straatcultuur maken de gymlessen een complexe context. Ook blijkt dat zij leerlingen in de les hebben die niet gemotiveerd zijn tijdens de gymles, maar wel deelnemen aan een andersoortig beweegaanbod vanuit een buurtinitiatief, zoals Favelastreet. Daarom onderzoeken we in dit RAAK-PUBLIEK project wat de achterliggende mechanismen van de succesvolle buurtinitiatieven zijn en hoe die te benutten in de gymles. Dit om zo recht te doen aan jongeren met diverse achtergronden, mogelijkheden en identiteiten in de gymles. Het onderzoek doen we samen met jongeren, hun ouders, docenten LO, initiatiefnemers van andersoortig beweegaanbod (buurtinitiatieven) en andere partners in Amsterdam, Den Haag en Eindhoven.
