Service‐learning 2.0 for the twenty‐first century: Towards a holistic model for global social positive change

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to introduce service‐learning 2.0 model based on four new paradigms in the global business landscape: connectivity, creativity, community, and complexity.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper reviews four paradigm shifts and their effects on service‐learning practices and methodology: wikinomics and mass collaboration, collective intelligence and open innovation, appreciative inquiry and positive organizational scholarship (POS), and self‐organizing systems and the new sciences.

Findings

Service‐learning 2.0 can be used to develop our students' twenty‐first century thinking skills through applied community engagement projects, namely: interactivity and interconnectedness, innovation and insight, and inspiration and intuition, integrative and interdisciplinary thinking.

Practical implications

Service‐learning 2.0 principles and pedagogy can help students appreciate and prepare for increasing complexity and paradox of management and organizations in the light of global, social and organizational changes of the twenty‐first century.

Originality/value

Service‐learning 2.0 model represents the pedagogy, principles, and processes that are better suited to the global, technological, and social changes and challenges of the 21st century.

Citation

Karakas, F. and Kavas, M. (2009), "Service‐learning 2.0 for the twenty‐first century: Towards a holistic model for global social positive change", International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 40-59. https://doi.org/10.1108/19348830910948896