Dear Ezio (and Victor),
I admit that I am a member of the list who is less enthusiastic about
this Stand Up for Democracy “movement”. I believe that those who have
initiated this movement need to elaborate more clearly about this “crisis”
before I or others can use this statement of fear to fill in the blanks of
actions we believe ought to be taken with design action. Initially I was
intrigued because of the names associated with this movement, but as I
critically examined this document it raised my concern about using fear as
a motivation. Also, the document is vague enough to make everyone feel that
there was something clearly expressed in this “Open Letter” that we all
could do. It's just so vague and full of hyperbole.
I had to step back and make sure that I was not taken away by The Open
Letter as an appeal to authority because I like what I have read in design
literature by both Ezio and Victor and I believe that they both are
professional academics in design. I stopped myself from joining the
bandwagon of designers to follow the famous names backing this movement. I
was believing what they wrote without clear evidence, and that is why I am
writing this. I know the level of detail and thinking of both authors
evidenced from their published works, and I expect that they can provide
better examples to their claims and calls for action regarding the Stand Up
for Democracy Movement, and I don't think they would find it an unworthy
request.
The beginning of this Open Letter reminds me of the National Military
Strategy of 2015 (
http://www.jcs.mil/Portals/36/Documents/Publications/2015_National_Military_Strategy.pdf),
using fear and trying to connect global disorder as a means for military
action. The differences between the Open Letter and the NMS are that NMS
names the perpetrators and has a strategy and approach, tangible evidence
you can pick apart (if you want), and the NMS has a perspective and point
of view with data and information to align with the reasoning. This is
missing from the Open Letter and makes it less trustworthy for me.
The following are my questions and comments regarding the Open Letter: (
http://www.democracy-design.org/open-letter-stand-up-democracy/) My method
is to quote the open letter and then ask questions about the sections
quoted.
“1. We are in difficult and dangerous times. For many years, we lived in a
world that, despite its problems, was nevertheless committed to principles
of democracy in which human rights, fundamental freedoms, and opportunities
for personal development, were increasing. Today, this picture has changed
profoundly. There are attacks on democracy in several countries - including
those where democracy had seemed to be unshakable.”
Can you elaborate more fully on the world we lived in compared to the
world we live in now that was once committed to human rights, but now has
fallen into disarray? I would like to see your comparative analysis so I
can understand your perspective. What are the problem frames and solution
frames? What are the sources of instability today that didn’t exist years
ago? We had the Holocaust, Armenian Genocide, Rwanda, to name a few from
the lived past. Democracy knew about it and watched it happen. Today’s
picture does not seem to have profoundly changed, and if so, please provide
some examples that show this sharp increase in democracies decline or
increased attacks on democracy.
When you define democracy do you define it as a system of government or a
process of organization, or something else?
“Today, this picture has changed profoundly. There are attacks on
democracy in several countries - including those where democracy had seemed
to be unshakable.”
If there are attacks on democracy, in any sense of the order, system, or
process, who are the attackers and in which countries are they from, and
which countries are they attacking? This is important to know and it
deserves a geographical map to identify the “several countries” who are
perpetrators to democracy. This should not be left up to my or any other
designer’s imagination. A call to action has to be believable and
trustworthy for me or anyone else to take the time to support democratic
processes and democracy, let alone design something to support democracy
against alleged attackers. I would offer also, that there are places where
democracy isn’t a viable option. I do believe in justice, equality, and
human rights, and most importantly, a fair rule of law. Democracy doesn’t
guarantee any of those, and majority rule, a process of democracy, may
actually subvert these values.
2. “Faced by these developments,…”
What do you mean by developments? What are the actions that have occurred
that have caused this fear that requires design action? What are the
problems you are calling “developments”. Please cite examples of
developments I should be concerned with.
“ we believe the design community should take a stand, speak out, and act:
practitioners, researchers, theorists, students, journalists,publishers and
curators - all who are professionally involved in design-related
activities.”
Can you name some specific problems that you think the “design community”
should take a stand? Or can you describe more tangibly the threats that
design should mitigate? For example (and this is a made-up example), in the
U.S., a democratic nation, the rule of law is under attack by policing
authorities that are poorly trained, and by the fact that arrested
individuals of indigent status cannot afford legal representation; and
therefore, the value of justice, an assumed democratic value, needs an
acceptable design solution.
“We do not have to share exactly the same idea of what democracy is: to
defend it as a core value, it is enough to recognize the strong convergence
between democracy and design in four respects: design of democracy -
improving democratic processes and the institutions on which democracy is
built; design for democracy - enabling more people to participate in the
democratic process, especially through the use of technology; design in
democracy - building access, openness and transparency into institutions in
ways that assure equality and justice;design as democracy - the practise of
participatory design so that diverse actors can shape our present and
future worlds in fair and inclusive ways.”
I think this group has a hard time defining design and will have an equally
difficult time defining democracy and what it ought to mean and how and who
should deliver the proper correctives to these “attacks” on democracy. As
of right now, I don’t even know who is attacking democracy’s flanks, to
make a stand against them. My hope is that the authors will provide some
evidence and clarity.
Lastly, I would say, that if I were to support any part of this Open
Letter, to take up arms(this is a metaphor), use my time, or my action, I
would need to see where Victor and Ezio have skin in the game. What
actions, leadership, and personal risks are you both taking against these
attacks to democracy and what are you doing about it, personally?
Thank you for your time.
*Stephen Matthew. WISNIEW*
*Stephen Matthew Designs*
On Fri, May 19, 2017 at 11:36 AM, Ezio Manzini <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> Dear all,
>
>
> few days ago Luke Feast has kindly presented and commented the Stand Up
> for Democracy initiative. Now I would like to share with all of you some
> information on it, to invite everybody who agrees with its spirit to
> participate and to give indications on how to do it.
>
> /Stand Up for Democracy/is an international initiative motivated by the
> concern for the attack to democracy we are witnessing in several countries
> in the world. Its first aim is to be a strong political statement of the
> Design Community against these on-going highly concerning trends. But,
> facing this crisis, /Stand Up for Democracy/ presents also a constructive
> side: it aims to create and multiply arenas of conversations and
> experimentations on how to conceive, develop and connect new possibilities
> for democracy.
>
>
> This initiative has been started in March 2017 by an Open Letter sent by
> Ezio Manzini and Victor Margolin to the Design Community. Now it is
> autonomously moving on and spreading internationally.
>
>
> Everyone who agrees with the Open Letter spirit can participate. The way
> to do it is simple:
>
> (1) Write a "personal statement", organize a "event" and upload them in
> these two digital forms:
>
> * for your personal statement: http://bit.ly/ddp-person
> * for the related event:http://bit.ly/ddp-event <http://bit.ly/ddp-event>
>
>
> (2) spread the Open Letter with your personal statement in your networks,
> asking for other friends and colleagues to participate in the initiative in
> the same way.
>
>
> These statements and the information on the related events are collected
> by DDP Democracy-Design Platform http://www.democracy-design.org. DDP is
> a digital platform that works as the Stand Up for Democracy initiative
> enabling system, giving the collected statements and events more
> visibility, coordinating them with other projects and offering other
> relevant information. DDP has been designed and is coordinated by three of
> laboratories of the Politecnico di Milano (Design Policy Lab, Density
> Design and DESIS Lab) and can be considered as their contribution to the
> Stand Up for Democracy initiative. __
>
>
> The Stand Up for Democracy initiative will last until October 2017 and
> will have its milestones in some main design-related events that have
> introduced or will introduce its topics in their programs.The first of
> these main event already took place and has been at the EAD /Design for
> Next Conference/, in Rome, where the organizers offered Stand Up for
> Democracy a space for discussion in the opening day, the12^th April.
>
> For the future, several other possibilities are under discussion. Two
> important ones are already confirmed. They are: the Cumuls Conference, in
> Kolding-Denmark, at the end of May, and the WDO-World Design Organization
> Conference in Turin in October 2017.
>
>
> All the best
>
>
> Ezio (and Victor)
>
>
>
>
>
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