Hello Edan,
I am also doing somewhat similar phd work co-supervised by Ozlem Er
and Chris Rust. I am based in Istanbul which is also my research
field. I study home crafts practitioners.
I did not read your entire proposal but I have read enough to share my
thoughts.
I could not grasp the ideological stance of the text and I am very
interested in being able to.
Your first sentence is: "This study investigates industrial design
practice which aims to contribute to poverty alleviation and economic
development in poor nations."
I can't ask wondering why you define poverty by nationality. There is
not one "rich" country that does not face poverty, that does not have
slums or immigrants. I cant help saying that in every third world
there is a first world and in every first world there is a third world.
What then defines poor nations as poor?
If you read Bonsiepe's and Er's work closely they talk about locating
the designer to facilitate growth from within but not to import it in
a top to down manner in the developing world (Newly Developing
Countries), not "poor nations".
Also Arthuro Escobar writes very nicely about how we take granted what
development is. Maybe the most backwards nation is the most developed
in means of something else but not money. That is why the
understanding of development seems shortsighted in the
developmentalism discourse as we know it. Escobar writes about how the
world was split into first and third not more than app. 70 years ago
due to political reasons.
Also, these issues have been studied in India since late 60s. Check
out Amul Coop. and the Jawaja Project. M.P. Ranjan has tons of
information about this on his blog. Again I cant help asking this: if
one talks about "activism" why not a coop but still a traditional
corporate system?
Also, check out work by Otto Von Busch, Coopa Roca, Swati Argade and
Escama Studio.
I do believe that social involvement does need some stance- preferably
guerrilla :)- because there is a thin line between breaking free and
feeding it back and making the poor poorer in the long run.
I d like to keep exchanging ideas about this.
Best,
Cigdem
--
Researcher
Department of Industrial Product Design
Istanbul Technical University
Taskisla, Istanbul 34437, Turkey
t. 0212 2931310 x 2824
f. 0212 2514895
w. www.tasarim.itu.edu.tr
Alinti Edan Weis <[log in to unmask]>
> Hello,
>
> I am a PhD student from the University of Melbourne, currently researching
> design practice which aims to contribute to poverty alleviation and economic
> development in poor nations, or "Design for Social Wellbeing". (sometimes
> called design for social impact, design for development, design
> activism, etc..)
>
> I am focusing on the normative aspects of "design thinking"; such as an
> individual's underlying ideological, institutional or theoretical
> dispositions which influence product or service development within DSW
> organizations.
>
> I have begun looking for organizations who may be interested in
> participating in my case study. If anybody is aware of organizations
> working in any of these three capacities (particularly in Sth/Central
> America), or could advise or refer me to them, I would be extremely
> grateful...
>
> 1) Commercial product/service development for low-income markets through
> social enterprise
>
> 2) Technical assistance and capacity building with local artisans or
> micro-enterprises
>
> 3) Product, service and infrastructure development assistance for
> communities and organizations.
>
> Also, I have found the literature and theoretical background of DSW to be
> fragmented and underdeveloped. In an attempt to contribute and open it
> further, I have uploaded my research proposal online, for anyone interested:
>
> http://www.xime.com.au/wiki/index.php?title=Work_in_Progress
>
> I welcome any comments or advice...
>
> Thanks everybody!!
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Edan Weis
>
> PhD Student,
> Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning.
> The University of Melbourne
>
>
|