What is Cultural Design?
We hope to see the CCD encompass multiple research strategies. Participatory design, in which
users are directly involved in the innovation process, has the potential
to include groups typically marginalized in social power (e.g. by race,
class, and gender), and thus better realize their needs, perspectives,
and creativity. Similar strategies termed "social design," "user-centered
design," "design for democracy," etc. have also been suggested
as alternatives which can make technologies more appropriate for their
social context.
Another group of research strategies draws on culture itself as a design resource, using concepts such as "cultural capital" or "local assets". Here researchers develop designs to translate local cultural capital (vernacular knowledge, social networks, etc.) into the kinds of capital that can empower marginalized social groups.
We envision the CCD as a place that will facilitate experiments in these areas, interpret the results, and explore associated issues ranging from collective intellectual property to technological democracy. This will require the development of theories and methods in the social sciences potentially useful to professionals and organizations centrally involved with design. Two decades of inquiry by scholars in S.T.S. and related fields have produced an array of ideas and approaches ripe for application in the shaping of new devices and systems. There are exciting possibilities for linking this new social science scholarship to the practices of design in industry and communities, in both national and international contexts.
