Designs on governance : development of policy instruments and dynamics in governance

The thesis analyses the role of policy instruments for dynamics of governance, using case studies on ‘emissisons trading’ and ‘network access regulation in the utilities’. It opens by observing a paradox: Policy instruments are criticised for misrepresenting the complex and contested reality of public policy-making by portraying it as technical problem-solving, yet, policy instruments play an increasingly central role in policy analysis, design and public debate. \ud The first part of the thesis develops a conception of policy instruments as ‘designs on governance’. This implies a double life: as models of governance and as configurations that work in real world governance contexts. Understanding the role of policy instruments requires to study the development of trajectories in governance patterns that result from the interaction of models and configurations. Concepts from innovation studies are mobilised and the notion of an ‘innovation journey’ is adopted as a heuristic framework. \ud The second part of the thesis presents two case studies examplifying different innovation patterns: design push (case of emissions trading) and dynamics pull (case of network access regulation). For each pattern typical phases and transitions as well as ironies that undermine the instrumentality of designs on governance are discussed. Conclusions of the thesis address the co-evolution of policy instruments with broader governance dynamics and specify conditions under which momentum of instruments may dominate over dynamics of problem formulation and political authority, or vice versa. Key insights are formulated with respect to the division of design labour between local and global in the context of emerging cosmopolitan governance regimes, the social life of policy instruments and the ambivalent role of technical models of governance for effectiveness as well as democratic legimitacy of public policy

Re-engaging with the intimacy of materials through touch

In today’s retail led world consumers are suffocating through an excess of soulless products. It is time we paused to breathe. "Touch has a memory" - John Keats. [A1] It is often assumed that product designers, especially in the fashion industry, will have a deep understanding of the tactile properties of materials that they use. This tacit knowledge is also assumed to be an essential ingredient for intimate engagement with the materials, for touch is about direct contact, close and personal; it is not sensation at a distance in the way of sound and vision. Through this intimacy, the designer can fully understand the potential sensory impact on their customers and can share their knowledge of this intimacy with the customers. However the rise of fast, offshore manufacture has led to a virtual design approach where cad-cam rules and the first direct contact that the designer has with their material is often when they receive the finished goods. The approach has become embedded in teaching, where virtual-oriented design is cheap and simple as well as effective. This runs in parallel to what Black [A2] describes as "The Fashion Paradox", i.e. the tension between an industry which has become dependent on the overconsumption of the consumer society made possible by low cost design and manufacture processes with emerging imperatives of environmental and ethical issues. It has become easy to make and sell a lot of goods, but perhaps a new approach is needed before we drown in an ocean of stuff. We hypothesise that a business strategy to introduce a new intimacy with materials to consumers through goods and experiences that celebrate "the joy of touch" will a) spawn better, higher value goods with cutting-edge appeal and b) provide a positive piece in the jigsaw necessary to address the Fashion Paradox, taking the line described by Fletcher and Early in "5-Ways" [A3, A4] that touch is relevant to the production of "supersatisfiers...which begin to break the chain of consumption and dissatisfaction". There are always many old voices that decry the lack of materials knowledge in the "designers of today", and we do not wish simply to join them. To avoid this yet to achieve new thinking in the territory we take a tangential approach that does not get stuck into stuff to early. Accordingly, the method will apply a method of research and teaching based on storytelling in multidisciplinary teams developed by Smith and Sams [A5, A6]. This reflects on the role of designer-storytellers described by Seah [A7] and Erikson [A8]. Thus, perhaps counter-intuitively, we seek to stimulate word-based approaches to a physical effect. The resultant project vehicle "Touch Stories" is inspired by the observations of experimental psychologist Charles Spence, e.g. [A9], that people have difficulty in detecting and remembering touch, but can be taught touch skills. This builds on earlier design projects "Touch Gourmet" by Torres and Sams [A10]. We provide below a short summary of the science context as well as the more usual design context for the project. The work described here is our first experiment using this method in the touch context with a fashion student community of young business and design professionals. In recognition, we report in the style of a science experiment - which also reflects the background of the second author. We are at the very start of a journey which we intend to take well beyond fashion (for the challenge of new materials and "too much stuff" spreads well beyond Fashion and its Paradox), thus to stretch and develop the territory, through the processes described in [A5, A6]. It’s a journey the design world needs to ‘touch on’

At What Price Inclusion? Some Pedagogic Implications of the Digital Divide

Current claims by government, major IT companies and educational institutions in the UK that IT skills offer enhanced inclusion into the new economy, are attracting women to the field of information systems. The needs of one social group – lone women parents – that IT skills initiatives seek to include will be analyzed in the light of another policy trend, the ‘work life balance’. Using narrative data from a research study of the Cisco Academy network engineer training programme, multiple stakeholder perspectives will be examined in relation to these two initiatives. The narratives presented highlight a systemic paradox; that the design of IT skills development scheme, the policy principle of ‘work life balance’, and the inclusion of lone women parents are simultaneously working in opposition to each other. By critically analyzing the assumptions underpinning IT skills training in the UK, this paper considers the implications of the contradictions revealed for government policy formation, the design of IT skills initiatives, and our understanding of the role of IT skills in the development of society

Fashion\u27s Brand Heritage, Cultural Heritage, and the Piracy Paradox

This Article explores the role that heritage has on our understanding of the appropriateness of intellectual property protection for fashion designs in light of Christopher Sprigman and Kal Raustiala’s seminal work in The Piracy Paradox. At times, heritage seems to both reinforce Sprigman and Raustiala’s argument that fashion thrives in a low-IP regime and, at other times, heritage challenges that argument. Taking Italian fashion design as a case study, this Article considers the intersection of brand heritage, cultural heritage, and intellectual property law and makes three central observations. First, that fashion designs reflecting brand heritage thrive in a low-IP regime. Second, that fashion designs might only benefit from a higher-IP regime in instances where we understand fashion designs not as brand heritage alone, but as part of a wider cultural heritage. Finally, understanding the relationship between copyright law and cultural heritage law is central to exploring how a higher-IP regime might benefit fashion designs today

My home your workplace: the impact of health and safety regulation on care homes for older adults

It has been argued that concepts of independence and care are often interpreted differently and more restrictively for older adults. Services are typically more concerned with issues of safety than with enabling participation or inclusion. Whilst the rhetoric of housing and care for older adults tends to be underpinned by ideas about independence, privacy, dignity and choice, there appears to be a paradox between these concepts and the goals of regulatory policy with its emphasis on safety, performance, and monitoring. Care homes exemplify this paradox where an imperative for ‘homely values’ contrasts with the application of safety regulation designed to protect people ‘at work’ from harm. This study offers a new and original qualitative data set providing an empirically grounded and context based understanding of how important social and regulatory policy has been translated into local policy, applied by staff and ultimately experienced by residents. The research design comprises qualitative semi-structured interviews, observation and the evaluation of documentary sources positioned within an eight care home case study framework. The primary sources of data are care home inspection reports and semi-structured qualitative interviews with residents, staff and home managers. The analytical framework includes thematic analysis within a system oriented Grid and Group typology designed to elucidate how the different case study homes apply regulation, interpret risk, and subsequently how this shapes participant experience

Paradox and promise in joint school/university arts research

Collaborative university and school research projects are inevitably labour intensive endeavours that require the careful negotiation of trust and the joint development of critique of current practice. While this raises tension it also builds generative communities of inquiry that can enhance both theory and practice. This paper reports on an Arts project undertaken in primary classrooms between university staff and generalist teacher co-researchers focusing on children’s idea development in dance, drama, music and art. This two year project is briefly outlined and some issues that arise in school research are explored. Project collaborators need to exercise caution in their examination of practice and strive to resist premature closure. All parties need to hold the tension of apparent contradictions, being both interested (in effective Arts pedagogy) and disinterested (in order to heighten perception) so that they might ‘surprise themselves in a landscape of practice with which many are very familiar indeed’ (McWilliam 2004:14). These issues and paradoxes in collaborative research are considered alongside some particular processes that build school and university partnerships

Just design

Inclusive design prescribes addressing the needs of the widest possible audience in order to consider human differences. Taking differences seriously, however, may imply severely restricting “the widest possible audience”. In confronting this paradox, we investigate to what extent Rawls’ theory of justice as fairness applies to design. By converting the paradox into the question of how design can be fair, we show that the demand for equitability shifts from the design output to the design process. We conclude that the two main questions about justice find application in design: the question about the standards of justice and the question about its metrics. We endorse a Rawlsian approach to the former, while some revision may be due regarding the latter