To Truly Be Just, ‘Design Challenges’ Need to Listen to the Communities they Claim to Serve

Design challenges are a frequent, highly visible, and narrative-centric approach to design. This article gives an example of what an analysis through a design justice lens looks like: What story is told? How is the problem framed? Who decides the scope? What values are built in to the designed objects and processes? Who benefits? Who loses?

“It is not that new technologies are useless, that design challenges are a waste of time, or that existing solutions are always sufficient. Instead, we must recognize that wherever there are problems, those most affected have nearly always already developed solutions; that existing solutions that come from those most affected are likely to have the advantage of being based on local materials, skills, and infrastructure; that people who are from, and work directly with, the most affected communities should be included in and control design processes that are meant to benefit them; that sometimes (although not always) external resources can best be used to support, improve, scale, and/or reduce the costs of existing, locally created solutions; that barriers are often not about a particular tool or object, but are social, cultural, and economic in nature.” – Sasha Costanza-Chock.

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Sourced from: Next City

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