Practical Design for Social Action

This project is concerned with designing and using digital technologies in `social action’ settings, or civil society.

Applying technology is highly context-sensitive. Some particular characteristics of technology use in social action areas include: the mainly social (rather than economic) objectives of people and organisations, values of inclusion and participation, relative lack of resources and the importance of voluntary effort.

These characteristics both place constraints on design, but also create new design opportunities. The opportunities for innovative design become even more apparent when a broad view of design is taken, encompassing social, methodological and organisational innovation alongside the technological. Consequently, this project takes a profoundly sociotechnical view of design as situated in the day-to-day work of innovative social action practitioners.

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