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CS92PROD
Participatory Design: From Helping to Solidarity

CSPL 220
Fall 2017
Section: 01  
Course Cluster: Education Studies Minor

As artists and designers increasingly turn their efforts to altering conditions for the vulnerable and oppressed, stubborn questions arise around the ethics of engagement. Socially engaged projects seek meaningful change, yet often discourage dissent, reify privilege, remain agnostic about outcomes, and do little to alter larger, structural inequalities. Artists and designers can easily exit projects deemed failures and write these off as learning experiences. Moving from one social injustice to the next, crises and suffering become "sites" from which to develop serialized projects. Armed with empathy and expertise, but with little local knowledge, these practitioners struggle to form equitable relationships with partners and collaborators. This course will examine a range of projects initiated by artists and designers and will challenge the idea that helping is beyond reproach. The course asks how artists and designers might better situate themselves as allies through developing practices that foster solidarity, exercise humility, and distribute agency.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS CSPL
Course Format: Lecture / DiscussionGrading Mode: Graded
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (EDST)
Past Enrollment Probability: 75% - 89%

Last Updated on MAR-28-2024
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