Practical Design for Social Action (PRADSA)

该项目涉及在“社会行动”环境或民间社会中设计和使用数字技术。它继承了以前成功的“技术和社会行动”研究集群。技术在社会行动领域的使用的一些特殊特征包括：人们和组织的主要社会（而不是经济）目标，包容和参与的价值观，相对缺乏资源和自愿努力的重要性。这些特征既限制了设计，也创造了新的设计机会。创新设计的机会变得更加明显，当采取广泛的设计观点时，包括社会，方法和组织创新以及技术。因此，本项目将从社会技术的角度来看待创新社会行动实践者日常工作中的设计。本项目的研究主要集中在三个方面：1）我们将收集和分析实践者的经验，他们采用了社会行动网络中出现的“新角色”。在这里，我们指的是那些将技术设计和使用，社会促进/组织技能以及社会行动领域的具体知识结合在一起以支持技术和社会行动创新的人。我们将探索各种案例研究，使用民族志和语境调查方法来跟踪这些研究者的工作。我们将研究他们如何运作和适应他们的社会和技术环境，他们使用的技能和实践，以协调成功的创新，以及各种设计方法和支持，可以提高他们的效率。2）我们将与选定的从业者一起探索新的设计方法的潜力，以充分利用社会行动环境中的特殊机会。这将通过一系列研讨会和结构化在线合作来实现，涵盖的问题包括参与，数字创意，叙事，组织和评估。从业者来自各种社会行动设置（例如社区宽带，。志愿部门的开源和社区电子学习）将为研讨会带来现实世界的设计挑战，研究人员和其他从业人员可以在研讨会上探索不同的设计主张和方法，以及这些方法可能有用的背景。3）该项目将建立在线讨论空间（同步和异步），包括与专家的“热席”讨论。在这些空间内，结构化的在线活动将补充和扩展面对面工作坊的工作，以接触更广泛的受众。该项目本身就是一种设计干预形式，我们正在寻求为从业者“设计”一个新的社区。这有两个含义：第一，对项目进行内部评估是不可或缺的;第二，在从业人员中进行宣传是这一干预措施的一个重要实际组成部分。因此，虽然将通过传统学术会议和期刊出版物传播项目成果，但将通过在线多媒体资源和培训材料以及相关杂志上的文章进行更广泛的传播。（例如第三部门）和最后的从业人员开放讲习班。该项目将由一个跨学科的研究人员团队进行，他们来自软件设计，新闻，交互设计，在线学习，社区设计，组织心理学和信息系统。

This project is concerned with designing and using digital technologies in 'social action' settings, or civil society. It follows on from the previous successful 'Technology and Social Action' research cluster.Applying technology is highly context-sensitive. Some particular characteristics of technology use in social action areas include: the mainly social (rather than economic) objectives of people and organisations, vlaues of inclusion an participation, relative lack of resources and the importance of voluntary effort. These characteristics both place constraints on design, but also create new design opportunities. The opportunities for innovative design become even more apparent when a broad view of design is taken, encompassing social, methodological and organisational innovation alongside the technological. Consequently, this project takes a profoundly sociotechnical view of design as situated in the day-to-day work of innovative social action practitioners.The research in this project focuses on three main areas:1) We will gather and analyse experience of practitioners who adopt the 'novel roles' that are emerging in social action networks. Here, we refer to people who bring together expertise in technology design and use, social facilitation/organisational skills, and specific knowledge of social action domains to support innovation in technology and social action. We shall explore a variety of case studies using ethnographic and contextual inquiry methods to follow the work of these practitoners. We shall examine how they operate and fit into their social and technological environments, the skills and practices they use to orchestrate successful innovation, and the kinds of design methods and support that can increase their effectiveness.2) We shall work with selected practitioners to explore the potential of new design methods to make the most of the particular opportunities in social action settings. This will be achieved through a programme of workshops and structured online collaboration, covering issues including participation, digital creativity, narrative, organisation and evaluation. Practitioners froma r ange of social action settings (for example community broadband,. open source in the voluntary sector, and community e-learning) will bring real-world design challenges to the workshops where researchers and other practitioners can explore different design propositions and approaches, and the contexts in which these approaches may be useful.3) The project will establish online spaces for discussion (both synchronous & asynchronous), including 'hot-seat' discussions with experts. Within these spaces, structured online activities will complement and extend the work of the face to face workshops to reach a wider audience.The project is itself a form of design intervention, we are seeking to 'design' a new commnity for practitioners. This has two implications: firstly internal evaluation of the project is integral; and secondly, disseminating among practitioners is an essential practical component of that intervention. Consequently, while the results of the project will be disseminated throuh conventional acadmeic conference and journal publication, wider dissemination will be achieved through online multimedia resources and training materials, articles in relevant magazines (e.g. Third Sector) and a final open workshop for practitioners.The project will be carried out by an interdisciplinary team of researchers from software design, journalism, interaction design, onlin learning, community design, organisational psychology and information systems.