Dear List-followers,
I am currently working on a question of 'whether the proess of public
transportation design can be AND/OR should be democratic and
participative?'. It is quite difficult to find references about the 'design
and politics' issue whereas there is a long debate on the 'politics of
artefacts' from the technological point of view. There are many works on
politics of technology and the debate of participants, decision-makers and
the recipients, however I haven't found the same depth in terms of design.
My investigation started with the municipality intervention on the sea
transportation in Istanbul that is a vital component of daily life of many
people. With the purpose of 'renewal' of a very characteristic
transportation means of Istanbul (they are even considered to be 'cultural
heritage'), the municipality had planned a drastic change to which some
civil groups opposed quite strongly. So as an answer to the resistance, the
municipality carried out a sort of online questionare with several design
options which was a very lame one in many ways. I don't want to get into
details here and rather keep it simple; consequently I ended up asking, is
there any way to pursue such an operation that effects public so intensely,
in a participative way? Or should the process be participative and
democratic anyway? Who are the actors, to what extent and by which way
should they be involved?
In my opinion, the question of 'design and democracy' applies to public
transportation quite well since it primarily effects society very closely.
So if you know any references to suggest, I would be very glad...
Thanks in advance and best wishes,
Gunes Tavmen
PhD Student, ITU
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