Dear all,
Policy design is an interesting area.
The current public 'story' assumes the (relatively) honest picture that:
Politicians take a political position and on that basis propose policies they (and their party) regards are best for the country
Citizens weigh up the policies of politicians and on that basis decide whether to vote for them
Politicians get elected on the basis of the merit of their policies
There is, however, a very different design explanation ... The story of involvement in elections and policy design process by SCL and Cambridge Analytica (the US arm of SCL created for the current US elections).
SCL and CA refer to themselves as global election management agency and specialise in behavioural change communications, psychographic marketing to result in electoral success for those that hire them. (Their other specialisms include military disinformation and psyops).
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/we-know-what-you-want-before-you-want-it/
https://sclgroup.cc/ (interestingly this is a domain in the Cocos islands, an Australian territory)
https://sclgroup.cc/elections
SCL claim to have been successfully involved in changing the course of elections across many countries for 25 years.
In the UK, they acted for the Leave campaign that led to the unexpected Brexit outcome.
In the US, they were employed acting for the Republicans in many key primaries that led to the final election of Trump.
SCL/CA advised on policies, communications and behaviours that would get people to vote and vote in the direction for which they were paid to advise (Brexit, Trump). In the US, CA is funded in the US by Republican Robert Mercer.
CA claim to have 5000 psychographic data-points on each of 220 million Americans that they can use to finely-tune persuasive individually-targeted messages aimed at changing or creating behaviours in individuals.
This second story of election process provides an alternative explanation of relatively unusual behaviours and policies seen in recent elections. It also contributes to an explanation of the lack of accuracy of electoral predictions. Currently, it provides part of the explanation of pressure on journalists. It leads to a suggestion that the current emphasis on policy analysis and leader behaviour is missing the point.
In design research relating to policy design, the involvement of 'election management experts' that can deliver electoral success regardless, changes the whole theoretical and practical basis for understanding and designing better policies.
It also changes what it means to be a citizen in a democratic environment.
Regards,
Terry
==
Dr Terence Love
FDRS, AMIMechE, PMACM, MISI, MAISA
Director
Design Out Crime & CPTED Centre
Perth, Western Australia
[log in to unmask]
www.designoutcrime.org
+61 (0)4 3497 5848
==
ORCID 0000-0002-2436-7566
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Stephen Bannon
Sent: Friday, 27 January 2017 1:37 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Our New Age of Contempt
Mike Zender, Professor of Design at The University of Cincinnati, said "If all you read is the news media then you are sadly misinformed."
It is great to see design researchers agreeing with me: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/26/business/media/stephen-bannon-trump-news-media.html
And with my esteemed colleague: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2017/jan/22/kellyanne-conway-trump-press-secretary-alternative-facts-video
Stephen
www.trumpuniversity.com
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