513 research outputs found
Design in stato di crisi: Popolazioni emarginate e le sfide del cambiamento climatico e della migrazione nel Mediterraneo
No full textCrisi e migrazione sono concetti strettamente collegati – sono numerose le vittime dei transiti irregolari. La globalizzazione ha reso la mobilità necessaria per i paesi ospitanti e per quelli d’origine. Le politiche affrontano i sintomi invece che la radice del problema, trattando la migrazione come l’effetto di difficili condizioni socio-economiche e politiche. La migrazione rurale inoltre è collegata al cambiamento climatico. L’inclusione sociale e la migrazione sono dinamiche indivisibili; un’equa inclusione sociale favorirebbe nuovi percorsi resilienti per le popolazioni rurali emarginate. Il design ha ampliato il suo campo d’azione, contribuendo a creare opportunità di sviluppo attraverso il coinvolgimento sociale e politico di tali popolazioni. Quale contributo può apportare il design nella creazione di nuovi scenari relativi a un problema così politicizzato come quello della migrazione
Design between Dignity and Identity: Burning Borders for New Routes of Migration
No full textNowadays, we notice that there is a correlation between the concepts of crisis and migration; the main problem is clearly the number of people risking or losing their lives through irregular routes because of the absence of alternatives. There is also a growing discrepancy between restrictive migration policies and the real demand for cheap migrant labor in Europe, as neither European nor African states have a much genuine interest in stopping migration because the economies of receiving and sending countries have become increasingly dependent on migrant labor and remittances, respectively (De Haas, 2008). Nevertheless, all the experts speak about the need to open new migratory channels to combat irregular migration and trafficking, in order to match the real demand for labor, and limit the effects of the large informal economies in Europe and the Maghreb. Europe’s migration crisis has exposed shortcomings in the Union’s asylum system. In western countries, political asylum is mainly a tool for humanitarian protection, but it also helps manage migratory flows. Accordingly, the same person could be viewed as a refugee in a country and as an economic migrant in another. The sole difference is that to refer to an individual as a migrant is to hold them in a state of transit. Some claim that the distinctions that are made between refugees and economic migrants are irrelevant since they do not take into account the stories of these individuals (Colombo, 2015). In contrast, digital culture has no consideration for boundaries and has allowed more people to acquire the information they need to access the global labor market. In our globalized and fluid society, social inclusion and migration have become indivisible. It is true that one can talk about social inclusion from several perspectives and not necessarily from the one of migration, but a fair social inclusion would enable people to move without recourse to irregular migration routes. On a broader perspective, social design could be the field of design supporting the aspirations of highly vulnerable population groups and the injustices they are subjected to: refugees and migrants are among these groups facing issues related to various segregations; work, education, healthcare,etc. During the last decade, design has increasingly been viewed as a problem-solving approach, which makes it central to innovation in general. This is also the case when dealing with wicked social problems. Terms like design thinking, human-centered design (HCD) and design for public policy are more and more used, especially when we talk about collaborative and inclusive approaches towards complex social issues. In fact, we have witnessed the emergence of several new fields of design linked to this social character with a particular enthusiasm for social innovation. Manzini (2015) insists on recognizing design as strategic in playing an essential role in triggering, supporting and scaling-up social innovation. What contribution can design make in this specific field? What is the designers’ position concerning complex social problems that are often directly linked to a highly politicized issue like the one of migration? In this research Makers Unite was our primary case study. The project was initiated by "The Beach", a social design studio working principally with disadvantaged communities in Amsterdam. They promote Sustainsist Design, as the new playing field for designers. Thus, they developed an extensive knowledge on co-design based on "connectedness, localism, sharing, and proportionality" (Krabbendam and Schwarz, 2013). Through its story-sharing space, Makers Unite seeks to tackle both the social and environmental issues of the refugee crisis meeting the definition on Sustainist Design as a link between social and ecological sustainability. The project brings together both "newcomers" and local residents in co-designing enticing products and
narratives, beginning with up-cycling life vests and boats accumulated on Greek island shores used as entry points to Europe and causing environmental problems. This would enable refugees to take their first steps in regaining their dignity, as it facilitates the identification of the abilities of newcomers and connects their skills with local experts in their respective fields. The Dutch context granted an idea, though a generic one, about the situation of migrants in a country of northern Europe to be compared to that of Italy as a perfect sample of the countries of southern Europe. In Parallel, a non-exhaustive outside-in research was also conducted through a series of spontaneous interviews with migrants, but also social workers in the asylum field. We attempted a kind of immersion to understand in a tangible way the issues that migrants face on a daily basis. The people we had the opportunity to meet were all different and each one had their own story. There was a wide range of profiles with different nationalities (Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Morocco, Tunisia, Palestine, Senegal, Guinea etc.) backgrounds and levels of education. As explained, globalization has made mobility a necessity for both host and home countries, and now the Internet has facilitated this mobility, through platforms and applications of job matching for instance. But it remains very limited, sometimes even abstract, and the populations who need it most, alas, do not have access to it. Internet has also facilitated mobility for workers of a new kind; "digital nomads" that work remotely and do not need a fixed location. There are also storytelling platforms where "influencers" create content, stories with value that people read, like and share. Because each individual has his own story and each story deserves to be listened to and valued, how could these three types of services be linked? How can someone give value to their own story and skills? Does he/she necessarily have the skills to create content and share it? Does valuing the stories and skills of individuals prevent them from embarking on a perilous journey to provide a way out by finding work abroad
(Reflextion) on design as/for common(s)/decolonial participatory experiences for post-capitalist resilient future(s)
No full textGli effetti catastrofici dell'Antropocene sono sempre più evidenti. Le manifestazioni di crisi non sono solo ambientali, ma anche economiche, sociali, politiche, etiche; che combinate con gli immaginari distopici del futuro, suggeriscono la necessità di un cambio di paradigma. A questo riguardo, i Commons sono visti come un'alternativa per una transizione verso un'economia post-capitalista. In questo contesto dell'Antropocene, il Design per l'innovazione sociale rimane inteso come un'azione "umanitaria", legata alla logica della mercificazione; motivo per cui alcuni chiedono di decolonizzare il Design dalle astrazioni occidentali. La ricerca si è concentrata sul rapporto tra Design e Commons, con un'attenzione al pensiero decoloniale. L'idea è quella di comprendere il ruolo del Design nel contribuire a spostare i paradigmi da un'economia di crescita estrattivista a un'economia delle risorse; un design legato alle situazioni invece che agli oggetti. L'indagine ha seguito un approccio di ricerca-azione che prevedeva di "abitare" le oasi di Chenini e Jemna in Tunisia, come Commons/Community Economies in crisi. È stato condotto un esperimento di design collaborativo utilizzando una linea di pensiero post-sviluppista/femminista, considerando i concetti di "Radical Imagination", "Epistemologies of the South" e "Situated Knowledge". Ne è emersa una prospettiva diversa per la ricerca progettuale, realmente radicata nel presente e capace di portare le comunità e i contesti coinvolti verso un futuro realizzabile
Design & Permaculture. Shifting Paradigms to Build Food Sovereignty in Tunisia
No full textThe catastrophic effects of the Anthropocene ie of human action on the planet are becoming more and more evident. However, different movements in both the Global North/West and the Global South/East are challenging the status quo, as new forms of governance and collective action are concretely implemented by communities to protect and maintain the shared resources entrusted to them. The permaculture movements offer in this sense alternative means of organization in response to the Anthropocene. In Tunisia, where several voices are calling for a real change in the trajectory of the economic model and the agri-food system to build food sovereignty, we have also seen the emergence of a network of permaculture practitioners. In parallel, the oasis of Jemna has become the symbol of peasant resistance and the practice of commoning; recalling the concept of autonomous design
Design as/for Common(s): Decolonial Participatory Experiences for Post-Capitalist Resilient Future(s)
No full textThe catastrophic effects of the Anthropocene are evident. Manifestations of crisis are not only environmental, but
also economic, social, political and ethical: combined with the dystopian imaginaries of the future, they suggest the need for a paradigm shift. The Commons are seen as an alternative for a transition to a post-capitalist economy. Yet, Design for social innovation is understood as a humanitarian action and remains linked to the logic of commodification; reason why some call for decolonizing Design from West- ern abstractions. The focus is on the relationship between Design and Commons, with particular attention to decolo- nial thinking. Following an action research approach that consisted in “inhabiting” the oasis of Chenini in Tunisia as
a Commons in crisis, the idea was to understand the role of Design in the paradigm shift from an extractivist growth economy to a resource economy; Design as attached to situations rather than objects
LES DÉNOMINATIONS DE L’AUTRE DANS LA TUNISIE COLONIALE : DE L’ACTUALISATION DISCURSIVE À LA RECATÉGORISATION DU MONDE
No full textDans le cadre du discours, la catégorisation peut être menée dans une
perspective autre que celle de la linguistique qui a largement consacré la notion.
Dans cette perspective, la catégorisation dans le discours colonial et anticolonial
produit en langue française sous le régime dit du "Protectorat" est d’ordre politique, social et culturel. Les différentes communautés en présence sur le sol de la Tunisie coloniale sont ainsi catégorisées et re-catégorisées, en fonction de leurs origines communautaires, de leurs prises de position politique et de leurs classes sociales. La catégorisation et la re-catégorisation sociopolitique dans le cadre du discours véhicule les points de vue du sujet du discours comme elle répond d’une manière ou d’une autre à d’autres catégorisations dans d’autres discours adverses
A Pricing Scheme for Content Caching in 5G Mobile Edge Clouds
No full textThe endeavor to develop 5G technology aims to support the recent outstanding mobile data traffic growth. In this regard, mobile network providers will be able to leverage on cloud edge-caching to offer services with enhanced quality of experience on the move. By this technology, dedicated cache space of mobile networks can be provisioned to OTT content providers, e.g., over metropolitan areas covered the network of a mobile network provider. In this work we address the problem of fair pricing such caching service, with storage the actual shared resource for caching. We study a scheme in which contents are dynamically stored in the edge memory. The mobile network provider offers a price λ for storing contents on the shared cache, thus engendering competition for cache memory sharing among content providers. We model such competition among OTT content providers using the economic notion of Kelly mechanism. Hence, we have studied the Stackelberg equilibrium, i.e., the optimal price configuration for the network provider. Numerical results describe the structure of the Nash equilibrium and the optimal prices resulting from the network provider optimal strategy
Optimal Control of Storage Regeneration with Repair Codes
No full textHigh availability of containerized applications requires to perform robust storage of applications' state. Since basic replication techniques are extremely costly at scale, storage space requirements can be reduced by means of erasure and/or repairing codes. In this paper we address storage regeneration using repair codes, a robust distributed storage technique with no need to fully restore the whole state in case of failure. In fact, only the lost servers' content is replaced. To do so, new clean-slate storage units are made operational at a cost for activating new storage servers and a cost for the transfer of repair data. Our goal is to guarantee maximal availability of containers' state files by a given deadline. Upon a fault occurring at a subset of the storage servers, we aim at ensuring that they are repaired by a given deadline. We introduce a controlled fluid model and derive the optimal activation policy to replace servers under such correlated faults. The solution concept is the optimal control of regeneration via the Pontryagin minimum principle. We characterize feasibility conditions and we prove that the optimal policy is of threshold type. Numerical results describe how to apply the model for system dimensioning and show the tradeoff between activation of servers and communication cost
Coordination Minority Games in Delay Tolerant Networks
No full textIn this paper we introduce a novel framework for the distributed control of DTNs. The mechanism that we propose tackles a crucial aspect of such systems: in order to support message replication the devices acting as relays need to sacrifice part of their batteries. The aim is thus to provide a reward mechanism able to induce activation of relays in a coordinated fashion. The proposed scheme functions in non-cooperative fashion, and requires minimal message exchange to operate. In particular, relays choose among two strategies: either to participate to message relaying, or not to participate in order to save energy. The base for our mechanism design is to define the relays' utility function according to a minority game; in fact, relays compete to be in the population minority with respect to activation. By tuning the activation level, the system can hence control and optimize the DTN operating point in a distributed manner. To this respect, we characterize extensively the possible equilibria of this game. Finally, a stochastic learning algorithm is proposed which can provably drive the system to the equilibrium solution without requiring perfect state information at relay nodes. We provide extensive numerical results to validate the proposed scheme
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