Hi Rosan,
It sounds a great PhD project! There is a shortage of useful theories
about designing in health promotion.
We found this out the hard way a couple of years ago when we were bidding
for health department funding to undertake some research into gender-specific
differences in young peoples attitudes to sexual issues that would inform
the designing of more accurately targetted health promotions to improve
sexual health and HIV/AIDS outcomes. We had behind us a large government
funded research project into the future of young people and youth services
in Australia to 2015. Arguing our case was made more difficult by the
lack of a well established, and scientifically justifiable body of design
theories that critically define relationships between the bodies of knowledge
needed to support the designing (about young people, social issues etc)
and those about the designed outcomes (characteristics/successfulness
of different forms of media). Our position contrasted with that of more
traditional health promotion researchers who focused on the topics (STDs/pregna
ncy/HIVAIDS) and on the statistics of past health promotions. The difference
is in emphasis: between grounding the designing and designs firmly on
information about underlying causes, and making designs on what has been
used previously. The lack of a well established body of theory about
designing also made it less easy to justify drawing on our previous research
into the future of youth service provision - which we see health promotion
as part of (We had recently undertaken a large government funded research
project into the future of young people and youth services in Australia
to 2015).
In terms of theory making and literature, we found it useful to review
the youth work literature, futures literature relating to youg people
and the institutions that shape their lives (lots of statistical analyses
of different social and demographic trends) . The literature on changes
to the youth category was interesting - the age bounds and characterisitcs
of youth categories are changing (but not uniformly). and of course there
is the usual literature on motivation, social dynamics, health, group
dynamics etc. This background stuff we found important and sometimes counterint
utive. For example, Australia (contrary to the press) doesn't really have
baby boom characterisitcs; the ways young Australian cohorts are likely
to be at risk of STD/HIVAIDS are strongly shaped by the immigration mechanisms,
and the pressures that result in young male suicide (which also echo
in risky sexual behaviour) are especially evident in adolescent male
homosexuals in rural towns.
Great you are doing this work! I look forward to seeing publications you
write about it.
Best wishes,
Terry
_________________________
Dr Terence Love
Love Design & Research
GPO Box 226
Quinns Rocks
Western Australia 6030
Tel & Fax: +61 (0)8 9305 7629
Email: [log in to unmask]
_________________________
========================================
From: Rosan Chow <[log in to unmask]>
To: Internet Mail::[[log in to unmask]]
Subject: Re: PhD Thesis work
Date: 8/24/01 2:54 PM
Hello Everyone
Following the request from Ken and the brave lead of Mattias, I am writing
to
briefly describe what I am trying to do for my dissertation. I welcome
constructive
and nuturing questions but don't kill me! My preliminary exams are lined
up in a
month, I will get some serious hammering then. This also is a quote from
a recent
correspondence to a friend who is curious about what I am up:
As far as my work at NC state is concerned, I am at the very moment trying
to
articulate a design point of view. And from this design point of view,
I will
develop and evaluate a particular design/research method to engage stakeholders
.
This will all take place in the context of developing messages about condom
use/HIV prevention among adolescents. (But the truth is that the order
of my work
is the reverse of what I have just told you: I have started with my interest
in
developing messages, then moved on to develop some method to be tested
empircally/scientifically and now I am articulating a design point of
view to
support it).
What I am attempting to do is to base my design work on some articulated
theoretical ground that may have implications for other design situations.
I
believe this aspect is more than often overlooked by designers. I also
attempt to
realize the theory in some concrete situation so that it has some direct
relevance
to other people's lives. This, I believe is quite often neglected by scientists
.
I am trying to balance theory and practice, abstract and concrete, critical
and
useful, and common research and common design.
Regards Rosan
--
Rosan Chow
Graduate Student
North Carolina State University
College of Design
Raleigh, NC 27695-7701
USA
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