地域コミュニティをめぐる公民館研究の視角

—ポストコロナ社会に向けたアップデート—

抄録

This paper will identify various features of local communities that were brought to light for community learning centers (kominkan) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The objective is to clarify perspectives kominkan research will adopt when examining local community issues as we move towards a post-pandemic society.

The paper starts with a summary of the institutions and policies regarding the places that are covered by individual community learning centers. Next, trends and examples from community learning centers during the COVID-19 pandemic are discussed. The paper will then discuss the perspectives from which future research on community learning centers should adopt in approaching local communities. Three hypothetical perspectives were established: area communities, thematic communities, and online communities.

Taking the above into consideration, this paper mainly clarifies the following three points:

First, from the perspective of area communities, the structures and initiatives of residents’ self-governance had been shaken due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, community learning centers needed to draw up a vision and a strategy as to how they can create networks for the community.

Second, with regard to issues within the local community, the COVID-19 pandemic has drawn attention to the way community learning centers are used by various local groups and hobby and other social circles. By re-evaluating their daily lives as they relate to their community learning center, persons who use these centers have brought to light issues related to aging and sustainability in their communities.

Third, in developing online communities that use community learning centers as a starting point, it will be necessary to develop a vision of the kind of user envisioned by each center and the kind of local community it aims to create in the post-COVID-19 era. This inquiry will play a significant role in effectively shaping the use of online platforms.