> On 21 Aug 2018, at 4:59 pm, Teena Clerke <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> What a great idea! While any [research] process will necessarily be constituted by and through the operations of what Dorothy Smith refers to as the social relations of power (following Foucault), beginning inquiry from what this list does well is a great start.
Teena,
I’m curious.
I have assumed that many on this list would be using or exploring the use of appreciative inquiry. We have been using it consciously since the early 90’s as a routine part of our investigative/research methods, though we had informally applied its methods from the beginning of our work in the mid 1980s. It’s at the centre of participatory design, as I understand it.
Specifically, in our design work, we ‘formalise’ it—if that is not an oxymoron—in the testing of designs. The distinction between what we do and what is called usability testing is often lost in conventional discourse about methods and process. But I would have thought on this list the distinction would be obvious. Equally, in engaging with stakeholders, it’s at the basis of all our engagements.
Am I wrong? Is this a novel or new form of inquiry to this list?
BTW, for those of you interested specifically in some of the power issues in design: after we did our major work on forms design in the 1980s, I wrote a papers summarising our major findings on this issue. It’s free to download:
https://www.academia.edu/449794/Forms_of_Control <https://www.academia.edu/449794/Forms_of_Control>
David
-----------------------------------------------------------------
PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]>
Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design
Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|