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Design For Empathy - Products for Conflict Resolution

Submitted by admin on Fri, 11/18/2011 - 5:18pm

Themes

Cities, neighborhoods, cultural activities
Promoters: 
Design Against Crime Research Centre - University of the Arts, London
Presentation: 
This project was carried out by MA Industrial Design Students at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, University of The Arts London. The Brief was developed by the Design Against Crime Research Centre to explore how empathic design and design research methods can be used to resolve conflict situations.

Context  :

Empathy is the ability to project oneself into another realm of experience from which to better understand it. Empathetic processes are very important to designers as they are often required to see things from another’s perspective be they users, consumers, individuals. Drama techniques are sometimes drawn upon by designers to generate scenarios that may improve empathetic design understanding.

Empathy is a crucial concept to the study of ‘emotional design’ as it involves an understanding, and often experiencing, of another’s emotional state. There have been many well-documented instances of designers attempting to put themselves into users’ shoes, to generate new concepts and to engage with users linked to participatory and experiential models of the design processes. The creation of simulated experience has been a design goal in itself, perhaps most typically in the area of inclusive design where ‘ageing suits’ are used to enable designers to experience the restricted of movement of an older user. However there are few examples of ‘design for empathy’ outside these niche applications, where the aim of the designed output - the product of design rather than the process of design – is to generate empathy amongst those that engage with the designed output. Specifically, there are few ‘designs’ that seek to resolve conflict amongst their users.

Les Jardins de Cérès – Cérès’s garden

Submitted by joonsbaek on Sun, 06/26/2011 - 8:11am

Countries

France

Tags

community-supported agriculture

Themes

forests and wildlife conservation, food, neighborhoods, rural-urban links
Link: 
Les Jardins de Cérès – Cérès’s garden
Stakeholders / Promoters: 
local producers and consumers in Palaiseau, France
Background/ Context: 
Palaiseau is a small town in the suburbs of Paris, which has becoming more and more built up, with shopping malls and industrial areas eating into farmland over the past few years. Several groups formed to protest against these developments. Isabelle Morgan, living in Palaiseau, joined a demonstration organised by a group campaigning against the construction of a new shopping centre on a huge stud farm. She realised that just protesting was not offering any solution, so she contacted existing associations to increase the impact of their actions. During this process she heard about the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) in the USA and saw the model as a solution to the problem. Looking for similar organisations in France the group found the AMAP. After contacting several farmers in the region, Isabelle and her friends met Emmanuel Vandame, a farmer willing to try such a venture.
Case Description: 

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Les Jardins de Cérès is a consumer group which wants local farmers to produce food organically. To do this, the group orders the produce in advance, before it is even planted, and guarantees to buy the crop. The association is inspired by the AMAP (Association pour le Maintien d’une Agriculture Paysanne) system, well known for some years in southern areas of France. An AMAP is basically a group of customers (organised by the farmer) who buy goods from one particular farm. In this system the customers adjust their demand to what the farmer can offer seasonally. Members of Les Jardins des Cérès have persuaded a cereal farmer, with about 250ha, to use one part of his farm to grow organic potatoes – the simplest crop. The members of the association help the farmer during the process – they cleaned the 400-year-old cellar and created storage places, and helped plant, tend and harvest the potatoes – and in doing so develop a close relationship. 
Les Jardins des Cérès was founded in December 2003. For the first year of its existence its 150 members ordered a batch of three tons of potatoes, which were grown on the Plateau de Saclay close to Palaiseau. The process created a social network, where people share their environmental convictions, experiences and ways of life. The farmer was paid in three parts: first third in advance to pay for the plants and the tools; the second third half-way through production, and the third part when the potatoes were harvested. The price for one kilo was evaluated in advance by taking the average price of organic potatoes.The association doesn’t get any external financial support.
Benefits (Social, and environmental benefits): 

Society. Through creating a direct producer/consumer link farmers get to sell their products for a good price and work under better conditions, and customers can buy high-quality locally produced products for a good price. By improving the economic situation of the farmer these organisations may well slow down the industrialisation of the countryside.The members very much enjoy the social network, and are very aware that the project needs social connections in order to work. Knowing the producing farmer is also a benefit for both consumer and farmer. 

Environment. The project offers an alternative to industrialisation in the area of Palaiseau, while supporting and developing local organic agriculture. By offering the farmer a good price for his produce the association enables him to earn a living, so he is not forced to sell his land for development. The project supports keeping green areas around the town. The farmer, who used to only grow cereals in a conventional way, is now interested in expanding organic cultivation step by step. Also, by promoting a direct producer-consumer-link the association reduces the distance produce is transported.

GAS (Gruppi di Acquisto Solidale)

Submitted by joonsbaek on Fri, 06/24/2011 - 12:49am

Countries

Italy

Tags

solidarity economy, purchasing group, neighborhood, food

Themes

neighborhoods, food, rural-urban links
Link: 
GAS
Stakeholders / Promoters: 
GAS (NPO), a network of consumers and producers in Italy
Background/ Context: 
Conventional models of purchasing food do not show how it is produced and distributed, or give any guarantees of respect for human rights and the environment. Consumers are increasingly dissatisfied by the products offered by large distributors such as supermarkets (which normally exclude small producers from their trade), and are looking for quality, transparency and traceability. They would like to actively find out about the background of the product rather than being a passive consumer. Consequently alternative forms of shorter supply chain are emerging.
Case Description: 

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Solidary Purchasing Group (GAS) is a group of people who buy wholesale foods in group and redistribut them between the members. In addition, it proposes a guiding criterion in selecting products, thereby allowing consumers to practice so-called critical consumption. The solidarity exists within the group, among its members, small-size producers who provide the products and the environment.
The aim of GAS is to promote humane economy that satisfies to our real needs and is favorable to the environment by formulating an ethic of critical consumption that brings people together rather than divide them and puts time and resources in common rather than seperates them.
Benefits (Social, and environmental benefits): 

•    Social benefits: Being together with friends in a relaxed atmosphere, discussing which product to buy that fits the group’s objectives of avoiding exploitation, and being high quality and of known origin, generates a feeling of satisfaction. The small number of people in each group makes communication easier.

•    Environmental benefits: There is less packaging waste, less need of energy for cooling and freezing (food is fresh and seasonal) and less pollution from delivery, as the products are bought in bulk. Some of the products are organic so benefit the ecosystem.

Peladeiros

Submitted by joonsbaek on Fri, 06/24/2011 - 12:34am

Countries

Brazil

Tags

soccer, Network, amateur

Themes

cultural activities, neighborhoods
Link: 
Peladeiros
Stakeholders / Promoters: 
A private company, soccer lovers
Background/ Context: 
In August 2000, Felipe Nascimento was organizing a game of football when he realized that, overwhelmed by people who want to participate in the game and people who are waiting to watch the game, there must be a better way to do it. So Felipe worked with development of software for Internet, and soon saw that a small effort a few weeks could solve his problem: it is how the first version of Peladeiro was created. At first, few pages were intended only to his group of friends. He and his friends discovered that the new means of control and organization of groups gave them a lot of fun, and even more, that this small site could be a great means of communication, storage of information, games and entertainment. Realizing the success with his group of friends, he decided to devote a little more so that other people could enjoy such a tool. In January 2001 was in the air Peladeiro.com.br.
Case Description: 

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Peladeiros is a web-based tool that helps people organize soccer matches more efficiently. It is basically a database of the profiles of the registered teams and individual players. The data are customizable so that people can manage the rank of teams and individuals and organize soccer matches according to the rank of the players.

Benefits (Social, and environmental benefits): 

•    Social benefits: Although this service was motivated by self-interest to entertain, it also creates opportunities for people to gather, make friends and play together, thus promoting social conviviality through sports.

Meetup.com

Submitted by joonsbaek on Fri, 06/24/2011 - 12:29am

Countries

United States

Tags

social network, meetup, local, face-to-face

Themes

cultural activities, neighborhoods, urban communication
Link: 
Meetup
Stakeholders / Promoters: 
A private company, local communities
Background/ Context: 
Meetup was inspired by the book Bowling Alone, which is by Harvard sociologist Robert Putnam about the decline of community in America and how people don’t know their neighbors anymore. “The Internet does a number of wonderful things, but it treats geography as irrelevant. We still live in a world where the local level is extremely important. … We are providing a service that revitalizes the Internet for local communities.” according to one of the founder Scott Heiferman. People are staying in front of their computers, DVD players and TVs more and more, and losing personal connections. After 9/11, the founders of Meetup started thinking they could help do something positive in the world by having people reconnect—not with people in chatrooms across the globe—but in their own communities.
Case Description: 

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Meetup is the world’s largest network of local groups. Meetup makes it easy for anyone to organize a local group or find one of the thousands already meeting up face-to-face. More than 2,000 groups get together in local communities each day, each one with the goal of improving themselves or their communities.
Meetup’s mission is to revitalize local community and help people around the world self-organize. Meetup believes that people can change their personal world, or the whole world, by organizing themselves into groups that are powerful enough to make a difference.
Benefits (Social, and environmental benefits): 

• Social benefits: Meetup promotes local community-based activities by providing a platform for people to meet, communicate and act together with their neighbors.