the strategic value of design for democracy

‘framing an issue’

bert mulder | associate professor information, technology and society

contents

design for (e-)democracy and (e-)governance

the issue

democracy, ICT and design

developments

challenges

research agenda

the issue

we find ourselves more and more involved in projectsdesigning solutions for democratic processes

online council meeting systemscitizen self governance

‘make the law’‘follow the law’

‘follow the parliamentarian’

the issue

we find ourselves more and more involved in projectsdesigning solutions for democratic processes

online council meeting systemscitizen self governance

‘make the law’‘follow the law’

‘follow the parliamentarian’

the issue

design more common for democracy and governance

1997: Schneider and Ingram: ‘Policy design for democracy’

1998: American Institute for Graphic Arts (AIGA) programme: ‘design for democracy’

2002: Andrew Reynold ‘The architecture of democracy: constitutional design, conflict management, and democracy’

2007: AIGA’s Design for democracy project does ballot and election design

2010: Andrew Reynold ‘Designing democracy in a dangerous world’

2014: Josh Lerner ‘Making democracy fun: how game design can empower citizens and transform politics’

2013: Centre for Civic Design subheading: ‘democracy is a design problem’

the issue

design seen as a preferable solution

‘…what works today is a more disciplined, systematic approach to solving public-sector management problems—in short, government by design.

Government by design calls on public-sector leaders to favour the rational and the analytical over the purely ideological, and to be willing to abandon tools and techniques that no longer work.

Four principles are at its core: the use of better evidence for decision making, greater engagement and empowerment of citizens, thoughtful investments in expertise and skill building, and closer collaboration with the private and social sectors.

Each of these principles is central to creating more effective yet affordable government.’ (Farrell & Goodman, Government by design: four principles for a better public sector, 2013)

the issue

with ongoing development of the information society

we will see more and more digital solutions

for democracy and governance

‘designed’

democracy, ICT and design

democracy ICT

design

ICT

democracy ICT

design

developmentsadministrative / registrative ICTweb 1.0 presenting informationweb 2.0 connecting people

the next decadeweb 3.0 connecting knowledgeweb 4.0 reasoninginternet of thingsquantified selfbig dataopen (linked) data

democracy

democracy ICT

design

developmentsdemocracy ‘in crisis’established / recent

western / easternnorthern / southern

design

democracy ICT

design

developmentsmaterial to immaterial

simple to complex‘social innovation’‘design thinking’

‘5 to 10% of designers are able to engage in social innovation’

democracy, ICT and design

ICTdemocracy

design

while a design approach to democracy and governancebecomes more prominent

each of the fields is in transformation:

what is the democracy you design for?what is the design you design it with?

what is the ICT you implement?

democracy, ICT and design

ICTdemocracy

design

what is the democracy you design for?what is the design you design it with?

what is the ICT you implement?

what should the quality of e-government solutions be?what should the quality of the design process be?

challenges

elements of the design process

productsdesign

design viewdesign process

world viewworld

challenges

the plea for better design context

Systems thinking

Analysis is useful for revealing how a system works but synthesis reveals why a system works the way it does…

(Pourdehnad, Wilson, & Wexler, 2011, p. 3

world world view

reductionism (the belief that everything can be reduced to individual parts),

cause and effect (environment free theory of explanation)

determinism (fatalism)

analysis(gain knowledge the system by understanding its parts)

expansionism (the system can always be a sub-system of some larger system), producer-product (environment-full theory of explanation)indeterminism (probabilistic thinking)synthesis (explaining the role of the system in the larger system of which it is a part)

challenges

the plea for better design context

‘designers should be concerned at a higher level and engage in four different conversations that are interlocked through iteration and evaluation’ :

Conversation to agree on goals

Conversation to create new language

Conversation to design the designing

Conversation to agree on means

(paul pangaro)

world world view

design for democracy | research agenda

(e-)democracy and (e-)government: moving from product to the process of design

reflection on the process of designing governance solutions meansreflecting on democracy and governance

from a functional design viewpoint

| political science | public administration | design theory | systems theory | IT architectures |

design for democracy | research agenda

a possible research agenda:

design frameworks and philosophies for (e-)democracy and (e-)governancedesign methodologies

design methodsdesign criteria for products

design competencies for designers and project teams…

the strategic value of design for democracy

‘framing an issue’

bert mulder | associate professor information, technology and society