Possibilities of Designing with and for Underrepresented Communities: A Conversation about Participation, Court-Involved Youth, and Humility

Possibilities of Designing with and for
Underrepresented Communities
A Conversation about Participation,
Court-Involved Youth, and Humility
Tara L. Conley, doctoral student CCTE
tlc2132@tc.columbia.edu
Artwork and photo credits:
Flickr: mustafaseven
Flickr: Jason A. Cina
Flickr: hsunaqua
Flickr: Jurgen Estanislao
Flickr: Lenton Sands
Flickr: Contra Costa Country Library
Flickr: Teresa Meza
Flickr: do1thingorg

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Before we begin, I invite you to:
•Participate in live, public and online discussions

and documentation of the presentation via Twitter
(including @poll in tweets), Instagram, Facebook
using the #RLR2014 hashtag, and via
Polleverywhere.com (text-in, tweet, or type replies
via PollEv.com/taralconley)


Photo: Tara L. Conley

Flickr: Jason A. Cina


Flickr: hsunaqua


then what?

what if?


“Out of clutter, find simplicity.
From discord, find harmony.
In the middle of difficulty lies
opportunity.”

Flickr: Jurgen Estanislao

“Though this be madness,
yet there is method in’t.”

Flickr: Lenton Sands


There is a blessing in
the storm.


There are no messy mistakes but rather opportunities
to paint a picture in an unexpected way by simply
modifying your brush strokes on the canvas.

it’s still possible


Participatory Design
•

activist methodology (not simply an
orientation to design)

•

combines expert knowledge with
users’ tacit (or implied without
being stated) knowledge

•
•

sister methodology to ethnography

•

eye towards democratic working
practices

conducted with community
members and stakeholders


Participatory Design
•

•
•

early 1970s history of PD began
with workers’ rights movement:

•
•
•

Scandinavia
Britain “Quality of Working Life”
movement

United States
response to worker, student, and
end user knowledge traditional
relegated, seen as non-experts
how might history of PD relate to
schooling? ( John Dewey on
participation and inquiry)



Flickr: Contra Costa Country Library

Court-Involved Youth


Three ways to respond electronically:
1) Text (code + your message to 5-digit number)
2) Tweet (include @poll + code + #RLR2014 in tweet)
3) Type (PollEv.com/taralconley)

White (24.8%)
Asian
Other race nonhispanic
Hispanic (35.5%)

25%
35%

Black (25%)
American Indian
Two or more races nonhispanic

NYC Youth Population
(< 18 years-old)

‣25% African American, NonHispanic

2%
1%
0%

25%
11%

‣35.5% Hispanic
‣24.8% White/Non-Hispanic
Source: (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010).


NYC Foster Care Population

NYC Juvenile Justice Population

65% Black/African American

54.9% Black/African American
(Citizens

Crime Commission of New York City report, 2010)

30% Latina/o

(Citizens Crime Commission of New

York City report, 2010)

(NYS

Office of Children and Family Services 2010 Monitoring and
Analysis Profiles)

27.4% Latina/o

(NYS Office of Children and

Family Services 2010 Monitoring and Analysis Profiles)

Juvenile Justice & Foster Care
Demographics
White youth make up approximately 25% of NYC youth population (U.S.
, yet make up less than 5% of juvenile justice and foster care
populations ((Citizens Crime Commission of New York City report, 2010); (NYS Office of Children and Family Services
Census Bureau, 2010)

2010 Monitoring and Analysis Profiles)


Flickr: do1thingorg

“From 1954 [...] to 1964, the racial demographics of New York boroughs like
Brooklyn changed dramatically. Due partly to massive in-migrations of African
Americans from the South and Hispanic Americans from Puerto Rico, Brooklyn’s
racial composition went from nearly all-white—and in the case of Williamsburg,
all Jewish—to nearly all black and Hispanic, a transition accelerated by massive
white flight to distant suburbs facilitated by ambitious freeway projects sponsored
by New York planner Robert Moses. As racial demographics changed, so too did
popular perceptions of delinquency.” (When Gangs Were White, Walker; 2011)

10% youth leaving foster care in NYC

12,126

end up in a homeless shelter within one year
of discharge (State of the City’s Homeless Youth Report, 2011)

20% young people leaving
the foster care system end
up in a homeless shelter
within three years of
discharge (State of the City’s Homeless
Youth Report, 2011)

(NYC.gov Flash Report, September2013)

Home

5,833

youths were admitted
to detention centers in
FY2009 (Citizens Crime Commission of New
York City report, 2010)


children in foster
care, as of July 2013

18%

of youth are discharged
from foster care under nonpermanency circumstances,
AWOL, APPLA, mental/
correctional facilities (NYC.gov
Flash Report May 2013)

Young people are on Facebook . . . a

Young people text . . . a lot (Raine and

lot (Conley, 2013)

Lee, 2012)

CI youth rarely have access to a computer or
cell phone, if they do it’s for a short period
of time (Peterson, 2010)

Flip phones are uncool. There’s
pressure to own a Smartphone
(Conley, 2013)

Social & Mobile Media
Young people want privacy,
however CI youth experience
privacy & access to information
differently (Fitch, 2012)

Social media offers a platform for young
people to story their lives and stay
connected with each other (Fitch, 2012)

CI youth experience significant communication

barriers with their respective agencies and facilities
(Leone and Weinberg, 2010)

Participation


Who’s Who of Participation
Scholarship?
Dewey

Lewin

Freire
Pateman
Rousseau

1918 1927

1946

1968

Philosophy

1970

Social &
Cultural Theory
Political Theory

Schuler &
Namioka

Oakes,
Rogers &
Lipton Jenkins

1993

2006 2009

Computer
Sciences

Education

‣ Participatory social inquiry (Jeannie Oakes, John Rogers, Martin Lipton, 2006 a la John
Dewey, 1918; 1927 )
‣ Participatory Action Research (a la Kurt Lewin “action research”, 1946 & Paulo Freire
“critical pedagogy”, 1970)
‣ Participation theory (Carole Pateman, 1970 a la Jean Jacques Rousseau “The Social
Contract” 1968)
‣ Participatory Design in HCI in US (Douglas Schuler & Aki Namioka, 1993)
‣ Participatory culture (Henry Jenkings, 2009)

Participation in Practice - Participatory Social Inquiry


Participation in Practice - Action Research (Lewin)

Source: http://infed.org/mobi/kurt-lewin-groups-experiential-learning-and-action-research/

Participatory Design in HCI - Universal Best Practices???


Youth Participation
•Conventions on the Rights of the Child, adopted

by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989

•Article 12 - every child has the right to

participate in decision-making process
relevant to her/his life.

•Article 15 - every child has the right to create
and join associations to assemble peacefully.

Source: http://www.crin.org/docs/resources/treaties/uncrc.asp#Twelve


Scenarios


Three ways to respond electronically:
1) Text (code + your message to 5-digit number)
2) Tweet (include @poll + code + #RLR2014 to tweet)
3) Type (PollEv.com/taralconley)

Ponder this


“Listening to silence also means attending to the way a person
asserts power by not speaking as well as a contribution made
through spoken words” (Schultz, 2010, p. 2836).

Ponder these
“Men [sic] must co-operate in associations to satisfy their needs
[...] [M]en [sic] must participate in the organisation and
regulation of their associations” (Pateman, 1970, p. 26).
Criterion for participatory design studies: “Continual
participation: Users should be involved repeatedly or continually
and offered mechanism for co-design at multiple
stages” (Spinuzzi, 2005, p. 171).

“Youth participation is facilitated by youth leaders and
adult allies” (Checkoway, 2011, p. 342)

What constitutes meaningful
participation?

What are some of the ways we
can (re)imagine participation
with youth and multiple other
community partners?

Photos: Tara L. Conley

Researcher Reflexivity and Humility


What I Learned, Am Learning

• I still have a lot to learn about

design processes, researching,
and community organizing

• more CI youth engagement is
necessary

• additional engagement with

community organizations and
developers

• I really have to be cool with

operating in a liminal and
dubious space as a researcher
and designer, and as a
community organizer


• developing best practices for

PD is like developing curricula

• Participation means different

things at different times and in
places, and that’s okay, as long
as I have a language to
articulate phenomenon, while
being able to reflect

• Working with young people

and others who have been
dislocated from their
communities is my life’s work,
and I’m totally cool with that

Ways to Further Study Participatory Design

•
•
•

Participatory prototyping

•

Exploring, experimenting with,
and creating best practices,
activities, and toolkits

•

Exploring the phenomenon of
communities confronting
dislocation throughout the
design process

Researcher reflexivity
Exploring the challenges of
methodologies for cooperative
development


@taralconley


Bibliography


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