As a Masters-level student working in transit advocacy in the U.S.,
I've found Klaus Krippendorff's "The Semantic Turn" very helpful. The
human-centered design approach is a compelling ideal, compared to the
challenging reality of public transit as it exists here.
-Peter Bain
On Apr 12, 2009, at 4:18 PM, gunes tavmen wrote:
> Dear List-followers,
> I am currently working on a question of 'whether the proess of public
> transportation design can be AND/OR should be democratic and
> participative?'. It is quite difficult to find references about the
> 'design
> and politics' issue whereas there is a long debate on the 'politics of
> artefacts' from the technological point of view. There are many
> works on
> politics of technology and the debate of participants, decision-
> makers and
> the recipients, however I haven't found the same depth in terms of
> design.
>
> My investigation started with the municipality intervention on the sea
> transportation in Istanbul that is a vital component of daily life
> of many
> people. With the purpose of 'renewal' of a very characteristic
> transportation means of Istanbul (they are even considered to be
> 'cultural
> heritage'), the municipality had planned a drastic change to which
> some
> civil groups opposed quite strongly. So as an answer to the
> resistance, the
> municipality carried out a sort of online questionare with several
> design
> options which was a very lame one in many ways. I don't want to get
> into
> details here and rather keep it simple; consequently I ended up
> asking, is
> there any way to pursue such an operation that effects public so
> intensely,
> in a participative way? Or should the process be participative and
> democratic anyway? Who are the actors, to what extent and by which way
> should they be involved?
>
> In my opinion, the question of 'design and democracy' applies to
> public
> transportation quite well since it primarily effects society very
> closely.
> So if you know any references to suggest, I would be very glad...
>
> Thanks in advance and best wishes,
> Gunes Tavmen
> PhD Student, ITU
>
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