Copyright (c) 2009 Sheffield Hallam University All rights reserved. http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session2/track_c Recent Events in Institutions, Policy & Design en-us Wed, 09 Sep 2009 08:27:43 PDT 3600 http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session2/track_c/3 http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session2/track_c/3 Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:00:00 PDT This paper reports on work in progress and initial findings of a research project that is comparing existing strategies for design (in promotion, support and policy fields) in four selected countries: Finland, South Korea, Brazil and India. For this specific paper, Finland and Brazil are the case studies compared. The paper explains the criteria for selection of these subjects, based on their stage of development and position on the Global Competitiveness Index (World Economic Forum). The objective of the research project is to investigate how countries with different national contexts adopt different strategies for design in coherence with their positions, weaknesses and strengths. Keywords: Design Policy, Design Strategy, Case Study/Ies, Brazil, Finland, Economic Development. Gisele Raulik-Murphy http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session2/track_c/2 http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session2/track_c/2 Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:30:00 PDT The paper addresses the role of the designer in navigating through politics and power dynamics that can potentially hinder ways in which people have input into a design process. It acknowledges that such obstacles are common to design practices and much is already documented in organisational, business and management frameworks (Best, 2006, p. 97; Jones, 2003). However, the paper draws on the author's doctoral research that explored how designers work within the complexities of politics and power dynamics and the agency they bring when working within such contexts. Firstly, the paper clarifies its use of the word politics by distinguishing between the Political choices that designers make, to the embedded politics of power dynamics and hidden agendas. It acknowledges how the Political content and intention of design is widely discussed in communication design literature where designers have created political content toward a purposeful political outcome. The paper therefore focuses more on another political aspect to communication design practice that relates to values, relationships and power dynamics. These human aspects of practice are complex, 'messy' and are often implicit. The power dynamics within projects can significantly influence the way stakeholders have input into the design process and subsequent project outcome. The politics of the individual, organisation, community or the society can often abruptly and unexpectedly surface through designing. Based on several interviews with a variety of communication design practitioners and project case studies from the author's research, the paper highlights a role that designers can potentially play in addressing the 'messy' politics that can manifest through design projects. The research explored various design interventions to enable a variety of people with different values, opinions and viewpoints within a design project to collectively negotiate them through dialogue. It has discovered that such design interventions can be instrumental in facilitating the dialogic process amongst stakeholders to illuminate differences in values or hidden agendas. The paper proposes that the role of the designer, then, is to facilitate this dialogic process through design interventions to enrich the experience of dialogue and exchange amongst project stakeholders. Keywords: Human-Centred Design; Communication Design; Politics; Power-Dynamics; Design 'Scaffolds'; Dialogue. Yoko Akama http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session2/track_c/1 http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session2/track_c/1 Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:00:00 PDT The design discipline is constantly moving and reshaping itself. As the practices are often new and still evolving, the professionals in the field need to position their own activities to the context in which they are practiced (Valtonen, 2007). In the case of industrial design, the practice is conducted and increasingly discussed in the realm of the economic world. When issues such as global competitiveness or companies' competitive advantages are discussed, design is often seen as a mean to improve business. This is the case especially where(onko tämä where ok?) competing on merely price or technological advantage becomes increasingly difficult. This paper shows how the designers present industrial design as an economically viable action and how the economic press represents industrial design in the context of economy. Keywords: Economic Rhetoric; Industrial Design; Interviews; Media; Rhetorical Analysis Anna Valtonen