Technical documentation in global community service-learning: A brief, practical look at the indirect effects of student 'Paper Work' and the Stirrings of Social Justice in Rural India

If students do not “solve” problems in Community Service-Learning, what significance does their work have for the community? This is the question that the author asked the social entrepreneur partnered with a global engineering course. The course is a longdistance variant of Community Service-Learning in which students work on sociotechnical problems identified by rural artisans in the craft and textile sector in India. Students collaborate closely with the social entrepreneur who has developed long-standing, on-the-ground relationships with artisans in marginalized communities in India. The course emphasizes the need for collaboration, the nature of community, and the search for low-tech solutions that are socially appropriate, environmentally sustainable, and economically feasible. While Community-Service Learning discourse largely focuses on pedagogical methodology and its transformative effects on students, the voice of the community often goes unheard. Our social entrepreneur's response to the above question reveals surprising qualitative insights about the relational nature of technical documentation and how even partial student “work on paper” can unintentionally empower communities that historically have been considered “untouchable.”.