Education as a practice of affiliation: facilitating dialogue between developed and developing nations
Robert G. Harland
Maria Cecilia Loschiavo dos Santos
2134/9402
https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/conference_contribution/Education_as_a_practice_of_affiliation_facilitating_dialogue_between_developed_and_developing_nations/9332819
Exploring Design research and Design education that straddles developing and developed world
contexts is the aim of this paper. It is a bold ambition to identify the key debates that inform these
two significant aspects of Design – much too big to cover in the limited space here. Nevertheless
we speculate on some of the issues that emerge from within Architecture, Urbanism, Philosophy,
Sociology, Geography, Education and Design. We do this through the idea expressed by Lang that
‘affiliation’ is the need that links to all other human needs. We hypothesize that affiliation, and our
need for belonging not only within our local communities, but also at a global scale, is a central
concern that links research and education in developing and developed world contexts. Some
design practitioners are shown to be tackling this problem, but too often these are single projects
limited in scale. We maintain that these worthwhile and noble efforts must be scaled up to deal
with problems of urban planning through first, second, third and fourth order design concerns,
recognizing that whilst contemporary design is increasingly occupied with ‘interaction’ and
‘environment’, the established preoccupation with ‘symbols’ and ‘things’ remains out of reach for
millions of urban poor. In fact, urban designers consider ‘symbols of affiliation’ as central to city
dwelling. Design research and design education must therefore aspire to a material democracy
that judges the appropriateness of each given situation on its merits, recognizing the need at times
for basic material provision.
2012-02-23 14:03:52
Affiliation
Design education
Social-actualisation
Design for the dispossessed
Urban design
Studies in the Creative Arts and Writing not elsewhere classified