A Practice of Social Dialogue—Kankyo [Environment] Café—

Abstract

A social dialogue event called a “Kankyo [environment] café” was held on campus or in public cafés from April 2015 to March 2018a total of 56 times with 305 participants (average of 5.4 per event). Participants at the 2nd Kankyo café in Komaba considered 6 people to be an ideal number. A questionnaire handed out after each of 5 events in Hongo in FY 2016 elicited the following responses: 68％ of respondents (range, 30–100％) “understood well”, 58％ (30–67％) “empathized well”, 32％ (0–40％) “understood to some extent”, 42％ (33–70％) “empathized to some extent”, 0％ “did not understand”, and 0％ “felt no empathy”. Among 12 high school students, 16 university students, and 2 social workers, 75, 56, and 0％ “understood well”, 25, 44, and 100％ “understood to some extent”, 67, 50, and 0％ “empathized well”, and 33, 50, and 100％, “empathized to some extent”.