Practical Design for Social Action (PRADSA)

该项目致力于在“社会行动”环境或公民社会中设计和使用数字技术。它继承了之前成功的“技术和社会行动”研究集群。应用技术是高度上下文敏感的。在社会行动领域使用技术的一些特殊特征包括：个人和组织的主要社会目标(而不是经济目标)、包容和参与的赞誉、资源的相对缺乏以及自愿努力的重要性。这些特点不仅限制了设计，也创造了新的设计机会。当广泛地看待设计，包括社会、方法和组织创新以及技术创新时，创新设计的机会变得更加明显。因此，本项目以一种深刻的社会技术观点看待设计，将其置于创新的社会行动实践者的日常工作中。本项目的研究集中在三个主要领域：1)我们将收集和分析采用社会行动网络中正在出现的“新角色”的实践者的经验。在这里，我们指的是将技术设计和使用方面的专业知识、社会促进/组织技能以及社会行动领域的专门知识结合在一起，以支持技术创新和社会行动的人。我们将使用人种学和背景调查方法探索各种案例研究，以跟踪这些实践者的工作。我们将研究他们如何运作和适应他们的社会和技术环境，他们用来协调成功创新的技能和实践，以及可以提高他们效率的设计方法和支持的种类。2)我们将与选定的从业者合作，探索新设计方法的潜力，以最大限度地利用社会行动环境中的特定机会。这将通过一个讲习班方案和有组织的在线合作来实现，涵盖的问题包括参与、数字创意、叙述、组织和评估。来自各种社会行动环境的从业者(例如社区宽带、3)该项目将建立在线讨论空间(包括同步和非同步讨论)，包括与专家的“热座椅”讨论。在这些空间中，有组织的在线活动将补充和扩展面对面工作坊的工作，以接触到更广泛的受众。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’一个新的共同点。这有两个含义：第一，项目的内部评估是不可或缺的；第二，在从业人员中进行传播是这项干预的一个重要的实际组成部分。因此，虽然该项目的成果将通过传统的学术会议和期刊出版物传播，但将通过在线多媒体资源和培训材料、相关杂志(如《第三部门》)上的文章和为实践者举办的最后一期开放讲习班来实现更广泛的传播。

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.