Design as Democracy Techniques for Collective Creativity

How Can We Design Places That Fulfill Urgent Needs Of The Community, Achieve Environmental Justice, And Inspire Long-term Stewardship? By Bringing Community Members To The Table, We Open Up The Possibility Of Exchanging Ideas Meaningfully And Transforming Places Powerfully. Collaboration Like This Is Hands-on Democracy In Action. It’s Up Close. It’s Personal. For Decades, Participatory Design Practices Have Helped Enliven Neighborhoods And Promote Cultural Understanding. Yet, Many Designers Still Rely On The Same Techniques That Were Developed In The 1950s And 1960s. These Approaches Offer Predictability, But Hold Waning Promise For Addressing Current And Future Design Challenges. This Volume Is Written To Reinvigorate Democratic Design, Providing Inspiration, Techniques, And Case Stories For A Wide Range Of Contexts. Edited By Six Leading Practitioners And Academics In The Field Of Participatory Design, With Nearly 50 Contributors From Around The World, This Book Shows How To Design With Communities In Empowering And Effective Ways. The Flow Of The Book’s Nine Chapters Reflects The General Progression Of Community Design Process, While Also Encouraging Readers To Search For Ways That Best Serve Their Distinct Needs And The Culture And Geography Of Diverse Places. Each Chapter Presents A Series Of Techniques Around A Theme, From Approaching The Initial Stages Of A Project, To Getting To Know A Community, To Provoking Political Change Through Strategic Thinking. Readers May Approach The Book As They Would A Cookbook, With Recipes Open To Improvisation, Adaptation, And Being Created Anew. This Book Offers Fresh Insights For Creating Meaningful Dialogue Between Designers And Communities And For Transforming Places With Justice And Democracy In Mind. Front Cover -- About Island Press -- Subscribe -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Suiting Up To Shed -- What's In It F Or Us? Designing A Durable Team -- I Am Someone Who -- Challenging The Blank Slate -- Environmental Autobiography Adaptations -- Finding Yourself In The Census -- Consume, Vend, And Produce -- 2. Going To The People's Coming -- Start By Listening -- Village Talk -- Community Camera: Piga Picha -- Sketching Together -- El Carrito: Rolling Out The Cart -- Pop Up Meeting -- 3. Experting: They Know, We Know, And Together We Know Better, Later -- Cellphone Diaries: Asset Mapping With Mobile Technology -- Mining The Indigenous -- The Investigative Reporter -- Reflect, Articulate, Project (r.a.p.) Method For Sharing Community Stories -- Adults Designing Playgrounds By Becoming Children -- 4. Calming And Evoking -- Mapping The Common Living Sphere -- Visual Timeline -- Children's Exciting Neighborhood Exploration Event -- Community Innovation Forum -- The Big Map -- 5. Yeah! Thats What We Should Do -- Prioritizing Decisions -- Community Voting, Local Committees -- Getting A Gestalt -- In-house Aha! -- Renkei Method: Scaling Up By Connecting Scenes -- 6. Co-generating -- Drawing Out The Sacred, Upside Down -- Green Rubber Stamp -- Design Buffet -- Place It Workshop -- Picture Collage Game -- Designing Life -- 7. Engaging The Making -- Start With Building -- Early Success Through Banner Making -- Pallet Furniture -- La Maqueta: Interactive Model For Studying And Imagining The City -- Cross-culture Prototyping -- Design/build Service Learning Studio -- 8. Testing, Testing, Can You Hear Me? Do I Hear Your Right? -- The Spatial Design Game: A Design Game That Teaches And Tests -- Anticipated Archetypes And Unexpected Idiosyncrasies -- Raise Your Own Sea Level. Machizukuri: Visualizing Sequential Futures -- Preemptive Comparison -- Participatory Budgeting -- 9. Putting Power To Good Use, Delicately And Tenaciously -- Mapping Environmental Injustice -- Kitchen Table Work Session -- Power Mapping -- Positioning Yourself On The Spectrum Of Power And Privilege -- Build Small, Think Struct -- Conflict In Its Time And Place -- Organizing A Place-based Campaign -- Conclusion -- Contributor Biographies -- Index -- Ip Board Of Directors. Edited By David De La Peña, Diane Jones Allen, Randolph T. Hester Jr., Jeffrey Hou, Laura L. Lawson, Marcia J. Mcnally.