Ali,
You make a valid point on the disciplinary boundaries of design given the
diffusion of design into very different territories such as politics. I
understand why politics appears new territory... but with a little
analysis, it also appears to be old territory.
I think we can agree that some kind of design process exists within all
acts to implement political will. The Council of Westaphalia that
established our modern global system of nation states was a design
exercise. Later, in the Council of Berlin, these nation states then made a
drawing of a new African state system, drawing borders that are
retrospectively arbitrary, but at the time appeared rational in the eyes of
the participating stakeholders (European colonialists). Marginalized
populations who have sought revision to these borders to reflect ethnic
concentrations <http://www.africafederation.net/Natural_Borders.htm> through
acts of war, could be debated as pursuing a design process (now that would
be a very interesting thread...). More recently, the nation building of
Afghanistan is largest and most expensive design experiment in history. My
friend and colleague Jan Willem Peterson recently received the Dutch Design
Award for his extensive design research concerning Dutch participation in
the Afghan reconstruction
<http://dutchdesigndaily.com/complete-overview/uruzgans-legacy/>, it is
impressive and excellent. This work was paid for by the Dutch military in
an effort to better understand how to better design stability and
statehood. I gotta say, when I first met him in Kabul, I was highly
skeptical he could do what he sought out to do... and he nailed it.
Now recognizing that politics has long been integrated with design - why
has it remained absent in design education? That is a bigger question. If
we look at the multi-sided coin of politcal science history, it should be
noted that the separation of political science and economics is a fairly
recent deviation. Rather, a more holistic notion is political economy
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_economy>, to study the dialectical
interactions of politics and capitalism. Taking a Marxist perspective, the
discipline of design is a social consequence of dialectical materialism. It
is always a byproduct of human values within political economy and modes of
material production.
Situated within the space of capitalism and production, design education
has long aligned the practice of design with business needs, technology
trends, and cultural expression. Yet for reasons I do no know (who does?),
it has long ignored the political side of the coin. There are plenty of
political acts and actors in design... but was there a foundations program
anywhere in 1975 that taught students about dialectical materialism or
neoliberal economics? t We see this in some programs today, but this is
considered rather new and experimental. Yet notably this argument does not
reflect all of the design spectrum - whereas urban planning is deeply
engaged with the politics, but at the sacrifice of the material, products,
and craft-driven problem solving.
So to wrap up in attending to your question - will design lose something by
more deeply engaging politics? No. Not at all. Design has been there all
along, but in an awkward fashion. The result is two levels of
responsibility for us: we need to further diffuse design among those who
are political so they can do it less badly (negating our general role), and
also provide opportunities within education for designers to specialize
within political sectors. Doctoral education could be a good place for
this kind of specialization, but the 'how' is murky. One could state that
this is merely the research problem to be pursued, or that the design
process will yield the outcome, but if the stakes are high - as in the case
of many political issues - this point of view is high risk among current
stakeholders. So then what?
Maybe we should ask "Deep Blue".
- Mitch
On Fri, Feb 3, 2017 at 5:44 AM, Johann van der Merwe <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Now then, Ken
> Can I still not compare you to Deep Blue (regarding deep memory)?
> Johann
>
> On 2 February 2017 at 23:50, Ken Friedman <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
> > Dear Mauricio,
> >
> > Politicians become designers when they are elected. Once elected or
> > appointed as legislators, executives, members of the judiciary, or
> members
> > of the civil service, they are designers in the sense that Herbert Simon
> > defines design: “Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at
> > changing existing situations into preferred ones.”
> >
> > Klaus Krippendorff points to the real challenge. When elected politicians
> > design, they design for complex multiple constituencies. This is not the
> > simple case of designing a preferred situation where the designer works
> for
> > a single client. It involves designing toward ethical ends and good
> > outcomes for all stakeholders. The entire problem of the lobby system or
> > the military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned about in
> > his farewell address is that small groups of the wealthy and powerful
> gain
> > control over the process of design for public good, turning it instead to
> > private ends.
> >
> > There are, nevertheless, many examples of successful design for public
> > good. Organizations such as Policy Lab work on massive design projects
> for
> > the UN. The World Bank now works with design. When we speak of
> politicians
> > as designers, we must also speak of those who design on behalf of
> political
> > leaders with agency distributed among the politicians and those whom they
> > employ and charge with execution.
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> Dr. Johann van der Merwe
> Independent Design Researcher
>
>
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