![]() ![]() ![]() It follows that “hindering” is anything that deepens existing inequalities - giving more power to those who already have it, silencing or inhibiting the ability of everyday people to stand up, speak out, and exercise their right to self-definition, development and autonomy.Īnke Schittway’s 2014 article Designing Development does an excellent job of level-headedly collating a number of scholarly critiques on both sides of the debate around humanitarian design. ![]() “Helpful,” in my opinion, is anything that reverses entrenched or oppressive power structures - giving a voice to everyday people, equalizing the flow of information, resources and power in society. As such, it can be either helpful or hindering for progressive social change. The text is excerpted from this paper which formed part of my MA thesis submission at Hyper Island.ĭesign: power to the people? Or to the powers that be?ĭesign is a tool. Here is my rumination on the ethics and efficacy of design in social impact and equality. I find these critiques of critical ethical importance. There’s a correspondingly long lineage of the critique of such work (with roots in anthropology). Our team is part of a long lineage of humanitarians attempting to help those whose life experience is very different from our own. Who am I to design solutions for poverty? The questions of our research are fraught with problems of power dynamics, entrenched disempowerment, misplaced pity and paternalism. I couldn’t help but obsess over some of the inherent dilemmas of privilege, power, and inequality that, maddeningly, crop up in the fight against those very things. (If you want the full story of that work, you can check out the seven-episode podcast I made about our project, called At Your Service ).ĭuring that project, I reflected a lot on the nature of social impact design. I spent about five months in 2016 conducting a design research project to understand and address economic inequality, together with Plot London. “Do-good” design can do more harm than good if we’re not cautious. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |