109-2 Community Empowerment and Citizen Participation

Students will explore the nature of community building from the environmental, economic, and social perspectives of “sustainable thinking” and will be led into actual communities to conduct theoretical exercises to understand and practice the concept and practice of community building. Through real-life experiences and interactions, students will learn about community environmental design, train their communication and coordination skills with community and social organizations, and understand the meaning of community building and public participation. In response to the trend of public and environmental planning, this course develops students’ ability to work with residents in planning and design, and to communicate design in a way that is acceptable to residents. The course introduces the basic concepts of community building, participatory design, and sustainability thinking, followed by practical examples and local community building situations as the basis for subsequent practice.