For an Allied Design Pedagogy abc
- a How about the subtitle “design pedagogy in context”, because the following statement is primarily about contextualization? Or better: “situated design pedagogy”. Situated is clearly based on one's own experiential contexts, but above all also addresses concrete contexts and bodies and the knowledge acquired through them. Or, you could also borrow “partial design” from Donna Haraway, but that would be pretty close to “partisan”.
- b think “allied” is quite good because it clearly thematizes the partisan as a form of supportive relationship in design.
- c Perhaps it should all go together in the subtitle. We already had “anti-neutral” in there in contrast to the classic universalist understanding of design.
Wea designers and practitioners in the field of teachingb are aware of social developments that distress us: growing social injustices such as poverty and unequal access to resources, racism, anti-Semitism and various forms of discrimination and misanthropy, further escalating climate crisis and environmental destruction, as well as threats to democracy from the Right.cd
- aThe question starts with who "we" are, because we tend to represent rather than challenge the principles of exclusion. The question of how academia can be changed from within and thus be able to reflect the plural societies. Universities are places of powerful principles of inclusion and exclusion, how do we as "we" behave in this context of becoming partisan?
- bDo have a better and more inclusive name for our profession or field of interest and teaching?
- cThis list sounds almost too soft and vague. Can we talk about global wars, increasing militarization, the strengthening of border regimes, poverty and hunger, climate catastrophes and how democratic spaces are closing while conservative to openly radical right-wing tendencies continue to grow?
- dPerhaps we should also mention that all of this is fundamentally linked to capitalism and its exploitative, competitive and growth-based conception of the world.
We call for educational systemsa that actively and courageously tackle socio-political problems and we distance ourselves from learning formats that remain self-referential and confined to disciplinary boundaries. When design pedagogy turns its attention to social realities, it includes not only relevant topics, but also people, groups and communities who should be the addressees of our efforts.
- aBy educational systems, we mean the sum of all institutions and opportunities for acquiring education. We would like to emphasize that academic teaching at universities is only one pedagogical area of many. School and pre-school education, vocational training, adult education centers and continuing education, but also and especially informal, self-organized and everyday learning practices should be acknowledged and included here.
Research and teaching have the potential to counter this ignorance towards social and political issues.a We want to place socially relevant problems at the center of our commitment in order to overcome well-established routines and hierarchies and initiate new forms of partisan cooperation.b
- aWe argued so critically optimistically, even though we know how much the freedom of research and teaching is currently under attack from many sides.
- bOf course, we begin by asking ourselves how others and we are already implementing individual aspects of this in our teaching concepts and pedagogical practices. What opportunities and resources do we still need to demand and what can we already provide for others?
We want to find out to what extent design can take the side of those who are directly affected by social, political and ecological injustices and have begun to oppose them.a To contribute to social change, design should be biased and partisan in favor of real problems and the concerns of social actors.b
- aResearch and teaching as well as designers and practitioners who want to intervene in a meaningful way are challenged to take a position in relation to these issues and movements.
- bWhat do we actually mean by “social actors” here? Just people, humans or something more? Non-human actors, such as the environment or artifacts: to what extent can we be partial to them? This would require a self-critical exchange of experiences that also examines best practice models and presents them for mutual discussion, as well as debating which initiatives, groups, people and things are specifically meant by this.
Partisan pedagogy and practice integrates the experiential knowledge and lived practicesa of emancipatory social movements into teaching. In order not to exploit these resources, a self-critical exchange of experience is needed that aims at structural change and does not only act within the symbolic economy of the academic field.b
- aIn this way, we would like to relativize established academic knowledge in relation to other subjective-practical or otherwise delegitimized forms of knowledge on the one hand, and on the other hand actively search for partisan and situated knowledge, but certainly also for partisan forms of action and socialization, right?
- bFrom an academic perspective, a self-critical look at the unequal working conditions inside and outside institutions would also be necessary in order to take into account the material conditions of knowledge production and distribution.
We would like to support each other in exploring partisan learning and teaching beyond the individual universities. The Partisan Design Network, as a collectively supported structure of sharing and learning, shall enable designers and practitioners in the field of teaching to deepen and critically reflect on experiments in partisanship and social and political engagement.a
- aUniversities and other institutions of education and research are spaces of powerful principles of inclusion and exclusion. We designers and practitioners in the field of teaching are aware of our privileges and resources and recognize that they are very unequally distributed within the academic system. How can we intensify our work to redistribute them?