Design Engagements at the Margins of the Global South: De-Centering the “Expert” Within Me

Uttaran Dutta

doi:10.3390/su11205675

Abstract

Conceiving everyone as a potential designer and believing in local peoples’ informed understandings and agentic capabilities in addressing local problems, my design research journey was committed to opening up avenues for sustained transformations in the underserved spaces of rural eastern India. In my design engagements, we (community members and I) contributed in three design projects, namely design for community development (DfCD), information design for development (IDfD), and design for grassroots innovation (DfGD). In my design journey, I sincerely questioned/challenged my presumptions and design approaches as well as reflexively reoriented myself to make the design processes culturally meaningful and contextually appropriate. Being constantly cognizant about minute traces of superiority (and sense of indispensability) within me, being willing to challenge, modify, and rediscover myself continually, as well as privileging and situating local and indigenous perspectives and knowledge at the center of design processes, characterize some of the key learning of my design journey.

Highlights

Academic discursive spaces are recognizing that the acts of designing are not necessarily confined to the contributions of designers; rather, non-designers can demonstrate their potential to define and solve problems
My socio-political identities and unearned privileges, I was largely perceived as an outsider in these underserved spaces
Literacy barriers: recent data shows that illiteracy among four rural indigenous populations in eastern India is very high and among women illiteracy is even higher [44]

Summary

Introduction

Academic discursive spaces are recognizing that the acts of designing are not necessarily confined to the contributions of designers; rather, non-designers can demonstrate their potential to define and solve problems. (in marginalized contexts of the global South, we, the design researchers, can potentially play important roles in accomplishing many of the goals—including Goals 1 and 2 (end poverty and hunger); Goals 3 and 4 (ensure good health, well-being and quality education); Goal 6 (ensure clean water and sanitation, and affordable and clean energy); as well as Goals 5 and 10 (achieve gender equality and reduce inequality), among others [4]). From the perspective of design studies, Van de Poel [5] argued that to attain the goal of social sustainability, it is important to prioritize and pay attention to the needs of the world’s poor and/or marginalized populations. Design scholars have emphasized several humane and socio-cultural concerns in the context of social sustainability, including equitable distribution of resources, fulfillment of basic needs, quality of life issues, community participation In documenting the sustainable development goals, the United Nation refers to culture for the first time in their agenda of international development [7]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion