Politicising Public Engagement through Critical Design

在围绕表演性的辩论中，本文探讨了为什么组织还没有将批判性设计作为一种公众参与的方法。这项工作很重要，因为它回应了公众对参与的不断变化的期望，这种期望正在从沟通转向政治。本文认为，通过提供一种促进组织和公众之间更大的政治参与的方法，批判性设计可以在这一转变中发挥重要作用。然而，尽管批判性设计研究呼吁采用挑战主流存在方式的行为设计方法，但人们越来越认识到，这些尝试只会使它们永久化。作为回应，本文试图提出一种新的设计方法来执行批评，使而不是限制公众参与组织的政治潜力。具体而言，该研究将研究如何在批判性设计中采用关怀伦理的行为属性，从而使组织和公众之间真正的政治参与成为可能。参与式行动研究为研究提供了方法论框架，研究人员遵循反思和行动的迭代循环，共同探索在关键设计中采用关怀伦理如何有助于在三个英国组织中使公众参与政治化。为了确保更广泛的影响，最后的挑衅将为新观众提供一个机会，让他们考虑在批判性设计中采用关怀伦理的更广泛含义。该研究的结果将是一套支持在组织内采用批判性设计的设计原则，一系列案例研究和描述这些原则在实践中的应用的人工制品，以及一个展示公众参与中的批判性设计的小型节日。这些成果将在网上展示，同时还有一系列的挑衅，以促进和通知未来的关键设计研究和实践工作。

Drawing on debates around performativity, this thesis examines why organisations have not yet embraced critical design as an approach to public engagement. The work is important because it responds to changing public expectations of engagement which are moving beyond communication toward the political. This thesis argues that critical design could play an important role during this transition by providing an approach to fostering greater political engagement between organisations and the public. However, while critical design research calls for performative design approaches that challenge dominant ways of being, there is a growing recognition that these attempts only perpetuate them. In response, this thesis seeks to propose a new design approach to performative critique which enables rather than limits the political potential of the public's engagement with organisations. Specifically, the study will examine how adopting the performative attribute of an ethic of care within critical design might enable genuine political engagement between organisations and the public. Participatory action research provides the methodological framework for the study, with the researcher following an iterative cycle of reflection and action to collaboratively explore how the adoption of an ethic of care within critical design might help politicise public engagement in three UK-based organisations. To ensure wider impact, a final provocation will provide an opportunity for new audiences to consider the broader implications of adopting an ethic of care within critical design. The output of the study will be a set of design principles that support the adoption of critical design within organisations, a series of case studies and artefacts that describe the application of these principles in practice, and a small festival showcasing critical design in public engagement. These outputs will be presented online, alongside a set of provocations to promote and inform future work on critical design research and practice.