Swanson, Gunnar wrote:
> Terry,
>
> That may be an Australian vs American language thing. The Oxford American Dictionary defines constituency as:
>
My (British) reading of "constituency" is like Gunnar's. It's a useful
term to use when you want to indicate a community where you can have
influence. One example I use sometimes is that Farmers/Landowners used
to have a big constituency because most of us worked on the land and
agriculture/food was huge part of the economy. More recently, while
Farmers may still have a very good living, they don't command our
attention whereas industrialists have become very interesting. Now
maybe an industrial expert or leader may find they have a diminishing
constituency.
That's why I like Stakeholder - an individual with an interest. While
there may be a debate about legitimacy in some quarters (Terry has
alerted me to stakeholder theory in marketing) I think that in design we
can afford to be very relaxed about that. If somebody has an interest,
active or passive, in the thing you produce then attending to them is a
good idea, even if it's not obvious right now how they will influence
the success of your "product". One of the roots of today's horrors in
Iraq is the (now widely acknowledged) lack of attention to the interests
of the Iraqi army and Baath Party members when the war was started. When
planning a war your enemy is one of the biggest stakeholders.
best wishes from Sheffield
Chris
**********************************
Professor Chris Rust
Chair of Design Research Society Council
Head of Art and Design Research Centre
Sheffield Hallam University
Psalter Lane, Sheffield S11 8UZ, UK
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www.chrisrust.net
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