scholarly journals Democratising and Anticipating Everyday Futures Through Critical Design: A Review of Exemplars

2020 ◽  
pp. 150-177
Author(s):  
Lenneke Kuijer

This article explores design’s relation with the future by analysing a collection of exemplars from design fiction and speculative design for their potential to democratise and anticipate visions of future everyday life in design. Future visions – both implicit and explicit ones – have a realising power of their own. This is especially true for design, the products of which co-shape the lives of millions of users. Rather than calling for a “better” future vision however, this paper draws on research from the social sciences and futures studies to argue for the importance of diversifying and enriching visions of future everyday life within design. Critical design is well equipped to contribute to this objective because it questions the status quo and is relatable and actionable for designers. The paper reviews exemplars from critical design for their potential to democratise and anticipate future everyday life. To analyse their ways of engaging with future everyday life, the exemplars are positioned in the future cone model of probable, possible and preferred futures. Through this positioning, a distinction emerged between two forms of critical future engagement: alternative fictions and extrapolative fictions. Alternative fictions are explicitly positioned outside of generally expected futures, while extrapolative fictions are explicitly positioned within them. Both have their own strengths and limitations for democratising and anticipating future everyday life. Alternative fictions enrol actors as “future people” and create scenes to depict future contexts, but can also include deployments in present day contexts to explore alternative human-artefact relations. Alternative fictions tend to be accompanied by alternative design practices. Extrapolative fictions do not include deployments and rarely propose alternative design practices, but they can play an important role in highlighting the underexposed risks of mainstream design pursuits. Critical design can and should play a role in democratising and anticipating future everyday life. Alternative and extrapolative fictions can complement each other in this pursuit. Extrapolative fictions question the status quo from within and use the power of design to highlight underexposed aspects of expected futures. Alternative fictions question the status quo from without and use the power of design to creatively generate different objects that can be used to flesh out alternative ways of living and their related context. Further research is needed into how critical fictions are best integrated into mainstream design practices.

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-53
Author(s):  
Marina Dekavalla

This essay discusses how Scottish newspapers covered the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. It suggests that, in a move away from the positions they had held in the previous decade, indigenous Scottish newspapers openly suggested there was a desire for change in the form of increased devolution. As this option was not on the ballot paper, most of them proposed that increased devolution could still be achieved inside the Union. The mediated debate in the press was not about traditional notions of national identity, but about pragmatic considerations affecting everyday life, such as the future of the economy and public services. Although most of the press in its majority did not support independence, it did not wholeheartedly endorse the status quo either.


Author(s):  
Jenny Andersson

Alvin Toffler’s writings encapsulated many of the tensions of futurism: the way that futurology and futures studies oscillated between forms of utopianism and technocracy with global ambitions, and between new forms of activism, on the one hand, and emerging forms of consultancy and paid advice on the other. Paradoxically, in their desire to create new images of the future capable of providing exits from the status quo of the Cold War world, futurists reinvented the technologies of prediction that they had initially rejected, and put them at the basis of a new activity of futures advice. Consultancy was central to the field of futures studies from its inception. For futurists, consultancy was a form of militancy—a potentially world altering expertise that could bypass politics and also escaped the boring halls of academia.


1968 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wyatt T. Walker

“Then Elisha said to those people who were assembled in the main square, in the midst of a terrible famine, with the Syrian army at the gate: ‘In about twenty-four hours you will be able to buy a measure of fine flour for a shekel and two measures of barley for a shekel.’ And the captain upon whose arm the king leaned looked at him and spoke in derision: ‘Ha! What's God going to do? Open up a hole in the sky and pour out food upon all of these hungry people?’ And Elisha turned to him and said: ‘You have a big mouth. You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat thereof.’ And there were four lepers sitting at the entering in of the gate of Samaria, and they held a conversation amongst themselves that had to do with what the future might hold for them. And they said one to another: ‘What good is it for us to sit here until we die? If we go into the city, there is a famine there, and we shall die. If we sit here, if we maintain the status quo, if we hold what we've got, we shall die also. Come on, let us go out to meet the Syrian hosts, let's try something that we never tried before, and perhaps we shall be taken prisoners of war, and, if so, at least we'll survive. And if not, what have we got to lose?’” (II Kings 7: 1–20; the “Walker” translation).


2021 ◽  
pp. 223386592110183
Author(s):  
Yuliya Brel-Fournier ◽  
Minion K.C. Morrison

Belarusian citizens elected their first president in 1994. More than 20 years later, in October 2015, the same person triumphantly won the fifth consecutive presidential election. In August 2020, President Lukashenko’s attempt to get re-elected for the sixth time ended in months’ long mass protests against the electoral fraud, unspeakable violence used by the riot police against peaceful protesters and the deepest political crisis in the modern history of Belarus. This article analyzes how and why the first democratically elected Belarusian president attained this long-serving status. It suggests that his political longevity was conditioned by a specific social contract with the society that was sustained for many years. In light of the recent events, it is obvious that the contract is breached with the regime no longer living up to the bargain with the Belarusian people. As a result, the citizens seem unwilling to maintain their obligation for loyalty. We analyze the escalating daily price for maintaining the status quo and conclude considering the possible implications of this broken pact for the future of Belarus.


2007 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Terner

The article analyses the latest developments in the process of harmonisation in the area of succession law in Europe. The status quo of harmonisation is described and the plans to harmonise this area in the future – which have not been given much consideration in the jurisprudential literature so far – are examined in detail. Particular attention is drawn to the Green Paper ‘Succession and Wills’ which the European Commission has issued recently (COM(2005) 65 final). The preparatory works, the development and the content of the Green Paper are described, and the reactions to it, as well as its possible outcomes, are analysed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-159
Author(s):  
Jan Adriaan Schlebusch

Abstract In his strategic political positioning and engagement in the nineteenth century, Groen van Prinsterer looked towards both the past and the future. Rhetorically, he appealed to the past as a vindication of the truth and practicality of his anti-revolutionary position. He also expressed optimism for the success of his convictions and political goals in the future. This optimism was reflected in the confidence with which he engaged politically, despite experiencing numerous setbacks in his career. Relying on the phenomenological-narrative approach of David Carr, I highlight the motives and strategies behind Groen’s political activity, and reveal that the past and the future in Groen’s narrative provide the strategic framework for his rhetoric, and the basis for his activism. I accentuate how the emphasis of his narrative shifts away from the status quo and thus enables a type of political engagement that proved historically significant for the early consolidation of the Dutch constitutional democracy.


2001 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 4-8
Author(s):  
Andrea Theocharis ◽  
Marcus Graetsch

We all study political science, but - what do we actually do here anyway? This essay expresses our thoughts about our subject. The everyday life in University doesn’t seem to give enough space for questioning what is this all about. Maybe a debate on that issue does not exist extensively because of fears of the loss of entitlement. The aim of this essay is to support the heightening of student’s awareness about the status quo of research and teaching in political science as we can judge it from our modest experiences. Trying to get to the basis of such a problem is not easy. The things here written are surely not the state of the art, but they could shine a better light on the problem what had been called the 'politics of political science' in an earlier Internet discussion on the IAPSS website. This paper should be understood as a start for a discussion, where we all can express our surely different experiences and ideas.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ersan Bocutoğlu

After the liberation of Dağlık Karabağ and close vicinity from the long-standing Armenian occupation by Azerbaijan in 2020, different scenarios concerning the future of Armenia and South Caucasus have come to fore. Therefore, there should be a realistic evaluation of status quo of Armenian political elites, diasporas and Armenian economy relations before taking into account of the scenarios. It is not difficult to estimate that since the realization of optimistic scenarios need a mental transformation of Armenian political elites and diasporas that takes considerable time, they are not likely to happen let alone in the short run but even in the medium run. The aim of this paper is to investigate the status quo of Armenian political elites, diasporas, and Armenian economy relations during 1991-2019 period so as to be able to set up a scientific base on which the evaluation of scenarios concerning the future of Armenia and South Caucasus is placed. The method adopted in the paper is a descriptive one and data are collected via internet. Paper suggests that the divergence of Armenian political elites and diasporas on fundamental issues such as Armenia-diaspora relations, Armenia-Russia relations, Armenia-the West Relations and Armenia-Turkey-Azerbaijan relations blackens not only the future of Armenia but also the future of South Caucasus.


Author(s):  
Milka Marie-Madeleine Malfait

Throughout its history, Artsakh had to guard against the external threats of Neo-Ottomanism. At the present time it is especially relevant. September 27, 2020 marks escalation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh – which means Artsakh in Armenian. This led to six weeks of cease fire, humanitarian disaster, which killed many people and destroyed cultural and religious heritage of Artsakh. The mountainous region is surrounded by Azerbaijani land, although populated by Armenians. Due to the political novelty of this issue, the author employed analytical and descriptive method. The acquired results demonstrate that the history repeats itself in Neo-Ottomanism, which has been a threat to Artsakh and Armenia since its emergence until the present day. In recent years, the concept of reunification with Armenia, as well as the independence of Artsakh, outlined the prospects for the future. The third solution to the conflict became the ceasefire agreement of 9 November 2020, nobly negotiated by Russia to save Armenia from military collapse. However, this solution is more painful than the status-quo. The main conclusion consists in the statement that the international community should be more vigilant and prevent the expansion of such threats.


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