4 research outputs found
Design-led policy and governance in practice: a global perspective
AbstractPresently, the relationship between policy and design is very much open for debate as to how these two concepts differ, relate, and interact with one another. There exists very little agreement on their relational trajectory with one course, policy design, originating in the policy studies tradition while the other, design for policy, being founded in design studies. The Special Issue has paid particular attention to the upcoming area of research where design disciplines and policy studies are exploring new ways toward convergence. With a focus on design, the authors herein present an array of design methods and approaches through case studies and conceptual papers, using co-design, participatory design and critical service design to work with policymakers in tackling challenging issues and policies. We see designers and policymakers working with communities to boost engagement around the world, with examples from the UK, Latvia, New Zealand, Denmark, Turkey, the UK, Brazil and South Africa. Finally, we offer a few reflections to build further this research area pointing out topics for further research with the hope that these will be relevant for researchers approaching the field or deepening their investigation and for bridging the academic/practice divide between design studies and policy design
Design for Policy and Governance: New Technologies, New Methodologies
This position paper pays particular attention to new and upcoming areas of re-search where design disciplines and policy studies are exploring new ways to-ward convergence. This involves in particular the examination of ways in which creativity-based methodologies (i.e., co-creation and co-production) are being used in conjunction with new technologies (i.e., big data and algorithms) to de-liver better policies and services. The papers examined fall into three areas in-cluding institutions and citizen engagement, new technologies and practices, and frameworks and methods. We conclude by proposing a research agenda to ad-vance Design for Policy and Governance. The following is taken from the entirety of works that make up the first theme track assembled by the Design for Policy and Governance Special Interest Group (PoGoSIG) of the Design Research Socie-ty, ‘Design for Policy and Governance: New Technologies, New Methodologies’
Meaningful practices : The contemporary relevance of traditional making for sustainable material futures
This article explores the relationship between design for sustainability and traditional making practices. It presents results from key informant interviews and observational research into traditional hand making of functional goods in Santa Fe in the United States, Jingdezhen, China, various locations in New South Wales, Australia and Cumbria, United Kingdom. We find that such goods fall into three main categories, primarily utilitarian, symbolic and aesthetic. These practices are discussed in terms of their contemporary relevance, potential futures and relationship to current understandings of sustainability. More specifically, they are considered against the four elements of the Quadruple Bottom Line of Design for Sustainability (Walker 2014), a rigorous interpretation extended from the philosophy of Hick (1989), which comprises: practical meaning including environmental impacts; social meaning; personal meaning; and economic means. The originality of this research lies in the development of new arguments and insights with regard to the complex issues of design for sustainability and traditional making practices. Significantly, we find that many of these practices are intellectually consistent with broad, contemporary understandings of design for sustainability. However, we also find that it is often not easy to reconcile these practices with modern consumer culture. Our research shows that pursuing these practices part-time for their own sake, rather than for primarily commercial reasons can often facilitate the pursuit of excellence and the continuation of cultural traditions
With an olive branch and a shillelagh: the political career of Senator Paddy Lynch (1867-1944)
As a loyal Empire man and ardent conscriptionist, Irish born Senator Paddy Lynch swam against the prevailing Irish Catholic Labor political current. He was one of those MP's who followed Prime Minister W.M. Hughes out of the Federal Labor caucus in November 1916, serving out the rest of his political career in the Nationalist ranks. On the face of things, he represents something of a contradiction.
A close examination of Lynch's youth in Ireland, his early years in Australia and his subsequent parliamentary career helps us to resolve this apparent paradox. It also enables us to build up a picture of Lynch the man and to explain his political odyssey. He emerges as representative of that early generation of conservative Laborites (notably J.C. Watson, W.G. Spence and George Pearce) who, once they had achieved their immediate goals of reform, saw their subsequent role as defending the prevailing social order.
Like many of these men, Lynch's commitment to the labour movement's principles of solidarity and collective endeavour co-existed with a desire for material self advancement. More fundamentally, when Lynch accumulated property and was eventually able to take up the occupation which he had known in Ireland, farming, his evolving class interest inevitably occasioned a change in political outlook. Lynch is shown to have been an essentially conservative Meath farmer whose early involvement in the labour movement in Australia can be largely explained as a temporary phase consequent on emigration.
A single-minded and robust politician, Lynch was able to reconcile first his Irish and then his Australian nationalist loyalties with the cause of the Empire as the best guarantee of Australia's future security and advancement. He both represented and reinforced the more conservative Irish Catholic political climate which prevailed in Western Australia, compared to the more populous eastern states. The relationship of the Catholic Irish to the early labour movement in Australia was more complex and problematical than orthodox thinking has allowed. As someone who straddled both political camps, Lynch encapsulated many of the inherent ambiguities of the immigrant Irish. A study of his career allows us to gain a deeper insight into the complexities of the Irish-Australian experience
