The project is a collaboration between Glasgow School of Art, the Institute of Design Innovation, Chiba University Tokyo and Toshiba. The aim is to find a space within which technology can enable social innovation, and design a solution within three problem spaces which are: Food, Shelter and Politics.

Our group was asked to look at politics, and how emerging M2M and IoT Technologies could be leveraged in order to increase political engagement in the civic sphere.

introduction

3

KAAJAL MODIGraphic Design& Citizenship

INÊS ANDIASDesign & Illustration

OLA KOZAWSKAGraphic & Product Design

MICHAEL RHODESExperience Design

NOVA ZHANGBroadcast Journalism

Exploring political topographies and the political discourse of individuals and groups.

Investigating how emerging M2M, networked objects and IoT technologies can facilitate the digital and physical proliferation / manifestation / dissemination of political ideas and how these can be used as a means to foster debate, the birth of ideas and increase political engagement between people and places within the civic sphere.

THE BRIEF

5

THE methodS

The project required the investigation of both current and imagined futures within which to situate the design solution. As part of this, we did case studies of current political activity in Scotland, particularly the recent referendum on an independent Scotland, and on potential future scenarios for both politics and technology.

We developed a range of research tools, including postcards, surveys, and games.

We chose not to narrow the demographic at the early stages, or look only at exisiting political situations, but to use all of the resources available to us in order to fully grasp the concepts of engagement, politics, technologies and futures, and the varying ways in which they fit with each other.

These resources included popular culture, science fiction, social events and activities happening in Glasgow at the time of research.

4Engagement tools - postcards

how do people currently

understand or interact

with politics?

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INTRODUCTION 2-5

THE TEAMTHE BRIEFTHE METHODS

DISCOVER 6-49

RESEARCHSTAKEHOLDERSENGAGEMENT TOOLS

DEFINE 50-61

SYNTHESISINSIGHTSOPPORTUNITIES

DEVELOP 62-71

IDEATIONCONCEPT DEVELOPMENTCONCEPT EVALUATION

DELIVER 72-95

PROTOTYPINGRENDERINGINTERACTION

ACkNOwLEDGEMENTS 96

CONTENTS

Hong kong Protests

9

DISCOVER

8

DESKresearch11

internet of things

Internet of Things is a concept based on interconnected devices within the existing Internet infrastructure, represented on the graph as a “cloud of data”. Machine to Machine (M2M) is an integral part of IoT and refers to technologies that allow “smart devices” (i.e. devices equipped with sensors that collect data and microchips that allow to transmit this data) to communicate with each other.

IoT is a consequence of an rapidly increasing interconnectivity in today’s world where the concept of “network” became fundamental.

It is believed that the networked technologies can facilitate the essence of any political activity which is communication between the individuals and groups of people and, as a result, lead to an increased political awareness and engagement.

politics

A variety of methods are employed in politics, which include promoting one’s own political views among people, negotiation with other political subjects, making laws, and exercising force, including war-fare against adversaries. Politics is exercised on a wide range of social levels, from clans and tribes of traditional societies, through modern local govern-ments, companies and institutions up to sovereign states, to the international level. A political system is a framework which defines acceptable political methods within a given society (e.g. Democracy in the Uk, Socialism in China).

global politics

Global politics include different practices of political globalisation in relation to questions of social power: from global patterns of governance to issues of globalising conflict. Global politics also concerns the rise of global and international organisations. The United Nations has served as a forum for peace in a world threatened by nuclear war, “The invention of nuclear and space weap-ons has made war unacceptable as an instrument for achieving political ends.”

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UN Assembly

CIVIC politics

A civic culture is a political culture characterised by “acceptance of the authority of the state” and “a belief in participation in civic duties”. Civic political culture is a mixture of other political cultures namely parochial, subject and participant political cultures.

Britain has traditionally been characterised as having a civic political culture, however whether this is still the case has been a topic up for recent debate.

individual politics

Individual politics is used here to signify the means by which an individual interacts with political structures and mechanisms rather than Individualism as in the moral worth of an individual or the elevation of said individual above social needs or hierarchies.

These structures include national / international governments and local / regional councils, and the mechanisms include, but are not limited to, voting, petitioning, campaigning, or demonstration.

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traditional politics

emcompasses left to right

spectrum & hierarchical

power structures

Uk Parliament

traditional views

The left-right political spectrum is a system of classifying political positions, ideologies and parties. Left-wing politics and right-wing politics are often presented as opposed, although a particular individual or group may take a left-wing stance on one matter and a right-wing stance on another. In France, where the terms originated, the Left has been called “the party of movement” and the Right “the party of order.” The intermediate stance is called centrism and a person with such a position is a moderate.

Traditional political power structures work in a hierarchical manner. Hierarchical leadership employs a top-down (controlled, directed, or organised from the top), pyramid-shaped structure with a narrow center of power that trickles down to widening bases of subordinate levels. An example of this is when government institutions make a decision or law that then governs the actions of people at the “lower” levels.

COMMUNIST DEMOCRAT MODERATE REPUBLICAN FASCIST

MORE “LIBERAL” MORE “CONSERVATIVE”

left vs right

grassroots movements are

driven by a community’s

politics, often at the local

level, by volunteers

Hillhead Primary Protest 17

grassroots views

A grassroots movement (often referenced in the context of a political movement) is driven by a community’s politics. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures. Grassroots movements are often at the local level, as many volunteers in the community give their time to support the local party, which can lead to helping the national

party. For instance, a grassroots movement can lead to significant voter registration for a political party, which in turn helps the state and national parties.

Grass roots (n.) 1. Ordinary citizens, esp. as contrasted with the leadership or elite.2. The people inhabiting these areas, esp. as a political, social, or economic group.3. The origin or basis of something.

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political activism

Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, or direct social, political, economic, or environmental change, or stasis. Various forms of activism range from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronising businesses, rallies, street marches, strikes, sit-ins, and hunger strikes. Research is beginning to explore how activist groups in the United States and Canada are using social media to facilitate civic engagement and collective action.

political action

includes voting, signing

petitions, campaigning and

demonstrating

UNHCR staff 16 Days of Activism

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Digital media has transformed the ways in which many citizens around the world engage in politics, and there are a growing number of occasions where the internet, social media, and information infrastructure seems to play an important role in the evolution of non-violent conflicts. Some argue that the new media environment supports democratization and peace-building efforts, while others argue the opposite. Examples include online petitions and campaigning, for example by organisarions such as 38 Degrees or Avaaz.

digital activism

Above is a picture of members of the online activist group Anonymous. Anonymous (used as a mass noun) is a loosely associated international network of activist and hacktivist entities. A website nominally associated with the group describes it as “an internet gathering” with “a very loose and decentralized command structure that operates on ideas rather than directives” In 2012, Time called Anonymous one of the “100 most influential people” in the world.

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The referendum on scottish

independence was a vote on

whether scotland should

secede from the UK

case studies

About 48 hours before the referendum, David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg promised extensive new “devo max” powers for the Scottish parliament if there was a no vote, giving Scotland full fiscal autonomy.

Since the no vote in the Scottish referendum, little has been heard from Westminster about the matter.

devo max The scottish question

On 18 September 2014 a referendum on Scottish independence took place in Scotland. The independence referendum question, which voters answered with “Yes” or “No”, was “Should Scotland be an independent country?”

The “No” side won, with 2,001,926 (55.3%) voting against independence and 1,617,989 (44.7%) voting in favour. The turnout of 84.6% was the highest recorded for an election or referendum in the United Kingdom since the introduction of universal suffrage.

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ola

The independence campaign was driven in large part by the Scottish National Party, particularly the First Minister Alex Salmond. Salmond has since retired as leader of the SNP, with Nicola Sturgeon, his deputy, stepping in to replace him.

Key issues of concern for those wishing to leave the union were the Trident nuclear programme, fears of NHS privatisation and a feeling of under-representation for Scottish people in Westminster.

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political engagement

* From “Audit of Political Engagement 11” by The Hansard Society, 2014 report, based on 1,000-2,000 GB adults.

According to the annual statistical report of an independent research organisation*, public declares that exactly 50% are ‘very’ or ‘fairly’ interested in politics. Distrust towards politicians and lack of understanding of daily life problems is a common feeling among the respondents (67%). There is a visible desire to be involved in decision-making process both on local and national level that outpaces the personal sense of efficacy and influence. This feeling of influence on a local level is twice as much as on the national level. The report also presents detailed analysis of demographic groups. Members of upper and middle social classes have almost twice the interest in politics and desire to be involved than working and non-working class. Also, women declare to be less interested in politics than men but they wish to have greater influence, especially on a local level.

“The public continue to feel relatively powerless in the political process.”

Interest in politics by demographic groups.

Very/ fairly interested

The 67% of the public say politicians “don’t understand the daily lives of people like me”.

A - upper middle class B - middle class C1- lower middle class C2 - skilled working class D - working class E - non working

Contacting an elected representative is the action that most members of the public (51%) say they would be prepared to do if they felt strongly enough about an issue, even more so than voting (46%).

FEELING OF REAL INFLUENCE DESIRE TO BE INVOLVED

31% of the public agree that “when people like me get involved in politics, they really can change the way that the Uk is run.”

Based on NRS social grades classification:

Feel involved in local decision-making

Feel involved in national decision-making

Want involvement in local decision-making

Want involvement in national decision-making

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During our desk research we encountered many inspirational projects and viewpoints from political, artistic and technological fields. We observed an increasing tendency towards open-source movements in politics that enable citizen to take part in the decision-making process and encourage governments to share data using technology. We decided to present here six case studies that we found most interesting and relevant to our project.

“Where people are respected as individuals and trusted in their shared commitment, they can come together.”

Australia 2020 summit,after Scotland No Matter What by Jane-Frances Kelly

“We have to accept the fact that top-down hierarchy is no longer working and it won’t ever work again.”

Citizenville, Gavin Newsom

political inspirations

A national convention to "help shape a long term strategy for the nation's future". Participants were 8 000 self-nominated or proposed Australians, diverse demographically. The event uncovered considerable public appetite for involvement in policy discussions. “The result was animated, unstoppable discussion”.

Project by Christian Nold for a Dannish town Hedehusen. It was designed to bring local people and local political entities together based on emotions, personal perceptions as well as environmental pollution data. It gathers data from small wearable and street sensors and brings it to a large town level display.

This is an attempt to create a new kind of politics. It is an example of open-source governance philosophy which advocates the application of the open source and open content movements to democratic principles in order to enable any interested citizen to add to the creation of policy, as with a wiki document.

Common Weal are a left-wing think tank who aim to create a future in which politics puts all of us first. It seeks to get us working together for the benefit of each other, not working against each other for the benefit of a few. It believes government should reflect the will of the people, not the will of the money markets.

Citizenville a book written by Californian Governor Gavin Newsom, formerly the mayor of super-wired San Francisco. It describes how ordinary citizens can use new digital tools to dissolve political gridlock and transform American democracy.

Future City Glasgow is an ambitious programme which will demonstrate how technology can make life in the city smarter, safer and more sustainable. Projects will address issues such as health, safety and sustainability through the use of open data, apps, portals and citizen science mapping.

disobedient objects

At the beginning of October some of us had an opportunity to visit the “Disobedient Objects” exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Not more than a month after, Catherine Flood, the V&A curator, came to GSA to have a talk about the “Disobedient Objects” in relation to the ongoing Cuban Revolution poster exhibition in the GSA’s Reid Building. This gave us a new light on the importance of objects in the context of the social movements and activism that can be a great source of inspiration.The exhibition explores objects of art and design from around the world that have been created by participants of the grassroots social movements as tools of social change. Objects displayed are mostly made by non-professional makers from easily accessible materials. Some of them use new technologies. Makers of the Disobedient Objects question the rules, undermine the system, show its absurdity.

“There is no such a thing as single-issue struggle, because we do not live single-issue lives.

Our struggles are particular, but we are not alone.”Audre Lorde, “Learning from the 60s”, 1982

To see more reflections about the exhibition, see our blog innovatepolitics.wordpress.com 27

What engages people?

Adapted from What Engages People by Nexus (www.nexus-ww.com)

People want to be a part of something useful, valuable, and bigger than themselves.

People want to know what is expected of them and what behaviours are valued. They want be recognised as individuals.

People have ideas, and they’d like to share them. The process of asking will engage people in powerful ways.

People want to be around those who believe in their potential and give them any necessary support.

Feeling that they are part of shared vision and destiny. They like to know where they are going.

Human beings want to feel connected to other people. Make people feel a personal connection.

Most of the theories about what engages people are well grounded in the business field. We adapted these to create six areas that stimulate political engagement.

ethnography workshop

292929

focus questions

As part of a Design Ethnography Workshop we took with Brian Loranger in Week 3, we reframed our research into three main focus questions. (mapped above)

The questions presented here are the final ones that we addressed, during our research these changed and evolved to reflect our understanding of both the brief and the context in which we answered it.

As part of the workshop, we also formulated our interview questions for our various experts, keeping these as broad as possible in order to allow the stories to emerge.

Expert questions included:What is your passion?How do you see this country in 25 years?How do you see the relationship between your expertise and politics?

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identifying stakeholders

stakeholders

We defined our stakeholders at this early stage as anyone implicated in the brief, and organised them according to our understanding of the political spectrum.

These included primary stakeholders such as politicians and the voting public, as well as everyone in between. We showed this within our stakeholder maps as political stakeholders on the one side, general public on the other, with communicators (media), academics (social and

political scientists), and technologists bridging the gap between them.

We intend that our project focus on making direct connections between the two ends of the spectrum, using expertise gleaned from our “secondary” stakeholders. Throughout the rest of our research we refer to these as our “Experts”.

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Martha wardrop is a Scottish Green Party member and has been the Councillor for Hillhead since May 2012. She studied Politics at Strathclyde University, and then worked as a volunteer coordinator after graduation.

“A lot of people individually

might be concerned about

something and they feel quite

isolated. Bring people together

and hopefully they can support

each other...”

councillor

The interview took place at a cafe on Woodlands Road. The councillor spoke about her path to political action, and how when she was politically motivated by the things that were going on when she was a student at Strathclyde. Through that, she got involved in community action, which led to her current role as a councillor.

Her work ranges from the small individual to Glasgow-wide issues. She has a very strong green agenda, her projects range from local street clean ups in Hillhead, cycling infrastructure, information and connection within communities, to mandatory carbon neutral policies for new business in the Clyde area. She does frequent Q&As within the community, and joins up people with similar issues in order that they can contact the local council as a group in order to get things done – she’s found that local issues tend to motivate connected people to solve problems within the communities, which in turn leads to greater effectiveness and engagement. 33

Activist and community development organiser for Commonweal, previously worked in digital media at 38 Degrees. She is also an active campaigner for the radical independence movement.

“We have lots of people

going out into spaces and

making local connections

and meeting up on a

regular basis.”

activist

The interview was a fairly informal one at the Saramago Cafe in the CCA. Kerri is from Scotland but moved to London 10 years ago, and came back to campaign for an independent Scotland with Commonweal. Commonweal are a Left Wing think tank, whose objectives seem to be the same as our own project: engage more people in politics. Pre-referendum they were focused on how to create effective policies for an independent Scotland, however since then while the focus has been lost, there has been a surge of interest that is so far undirected.

Kerri’s own vision for the future gives citizens control over their own lives, and their country’s destiny. She doesn’t think technology has much of a part to play in politics, pointing out that the representation of the Scottish public on the internet during the referendum was highly misleading, and that there are many people who are politically active in Scotland who do not have access to, or even know how to use, the internet.

politics

34 3534

Professor of Citizenship and Social Theory at the University of Glasgow. His recent research focuses on the citizenship of children in Scotland.

“If there was going

to be more genuine

civic engagement it

would need to be on the

grassroots level to be a

significant change.”

social theorist

We met Prof. Lockyer at the Glasgow University. He started with reflections on what actually does being an active citizen mean. He pointed out that civic engagement can be considered as all personal activities that we do voluntary. Being an active citizen is not only a matter of exercising a vote, but also an obligation to be informed about public matters.

Hence, improving political literacy and debate from young age is an important aspect, especially in the context of the recent referendum when the voting age limit was lowered to 16. He emphasised that the referendum was a unique example of an accepted sovereignty of the people. Despite the results, “Yes” voters gained more confidence as their voice has been listened to once and will be again in the future.

The professor suggested more referendums as one of the ways of devolving more power to people over their local concerns. When answering a question about his understanding of a community, he referred to the Aristotle’s thought that it is the family which lies at the very core of this concept.

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Sociologist, Lecturer in Physical & Sport Education, School of Education, Theology and Leadership, St. Mary’s University

“Big referendums with

different cultural group on

local and national levels give

back the sense of control and

influence.”

sociologist

Stuart’s research primary focus lies on a crossover between sport, politics and sociology. As a Scottish person living in London, he closely examined the Glasgow XX Commonwealth Games and the Referendum from a sociological perspective. During our Skype interview, he commented on a huge excitement about the idea of the independent Scotland.

However, he expressed doubts whether that momentum will last long. According to Stuart, the unprecedentedly high turnout was a result of people feeling that they got control, some form of meaningful representation. He emphasized that the referendum was more about an ideal rather than any political party and that is what made it different. He referred to a Swiss model of regular referendums, where people feel more engaged by the issue they can influence directly.

As a conclusion, Stuart described how he sees an ideal society: equal distribution of wealth, responsible development and equal resources: “it is all about people living happily in their environment.”

society

36 37

Research Data Scientist at Urban Big Data Centre, author of the “Twitter and the Independence Referendum” visualisation.

“You follow people

you like so you end up

reinforcing your own

opinion because you follow

the people who already

have your opinion.”

data scientist

We met Michael in his office at the Urban Big Data Centre. Michael’s main area of interest lies in facilitating the use of new technologies in social science research. We started with reflections about the role of technology in stimulating participation in the recent referendum.

Michael pointed out that modern social media broadens sources of information that people use to make up their minds, however, in contrast to traditional media, individuals usually look for evidence to back up their own views. He suggested possible use of phone application that would let people choose their preferences and issues that are important to them, specific to a local community, rather than spending thousands of pounds on archaic telephone polling and registration.

He emphasised the importance of respecting privacy in his projects. He noticed that when people recognise the benefits to the wider public, they are more positive about contributing and give away a bit of their privacy for this purpose. Michael concluded with a hope that technology can stimulate more civic engagement and sense of neighborhood.

Teacher and writer. The Internet of Things expert, founder of the Internet of Things Council - an agency for promoting technological and social change.

“So it’s not simply going

back to the local. It’s going

to the local with the full

power of network.”

iot expert & writer

Rob is a co-author of the book “Internet of People” that caught our attention during the desk research phase. In a fascinating and in-depth Skype interview, we touched on many important points that served as a basis for our later considerations.

Rob advocates devolution of power and manufacturing to a local level facilitated with the network and technology. Rob mentioned that in an ideal situation, we would a good balance between the system that we can monitor plus a lot of local agency which can be an alternative to the current situation. Rob several times emphasized the importance of transparency in today’s world. According to him, we would have already lost our privacy as people and so the institutions should become totally transparent too. We need to renegotiate our relationship with the institutions and we need a new decision-making model based on real time objective data stream followed by discussion.

Concluding, we reflected on the importance of solidarity in this new technological and political model – do we want smart society for everybody or only for those who can afford it?

technology

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Freelance radio journalist and writer. She has rich experience in reporting political issues and focuses on social issues for the long term in the Uk and Middle East.

“The role of the media is

to de-jargonise politics...

make it accessible”

data scientist

The interview took place in the canteen in the Reid Building. Shiona was chatty relaxed and informal, she gave a very unbiased view on the independence referendum and her experiences covering it. She comes from a law background and explained the Offcom regulations around media coverage, so was dismissive of any idea of broadcast media “bias” during the indy ref, showing us specific examples of how her work had to give equal airtime to both sides.

Touching on new/social media and how it had changed her medium, Shiona spoke about how flexible and responsive media needs to be now that so many people are “reporting” on the issues and things around them via social media. She uses Twitter quite extensively, both personally and professionally, and thinks it’s a great resource for news, but that there will always be space for radio and print media.

Columnist at The Herald, and political columnist for The Scotsman during the referendum. Previously a leader writer, foreign editor and sub-editor for other newspapers around the country.

“A lot of politics is

boring, but we the need

people who worry

about things like

council tax.”

political columnist

The interview took place in the cafe in the basement of a bookshop on Sauchiehall Street. Alison is well-spoken and knowledgeable, she has been in the media for a long time and believes that newspapers are here to stay. Apparently during the referendum newspaper sales soared as many more people picked up a paper for their news.

She spoke of the referendum as an explicitly political issue rather than a social movement, and she believes that more people are moving towards traditional forms of politics since the referendum. Alison also thinks that there will be a return to traditional forms of politics in the future by everyone, as traditional politics may change but will never disappear.

media

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concerned people

We designed a range of engagement tools that we used to gather evidence and information from the general public about the ways in which they currently interact with politics. The brand that we created was deliberately “warm” and welcoming, unlike a lot of political design, which can seem alienating or “boring” to some people.

people

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Engagement tools

42 43

The postcards were used as an engagement tool to gather anonymous qualitative data from members of the general public. The questions allowed participants to express themselves freely through written word or illustrations when answering one of the single question postcards. The five question postcards produced answers directed on a more local level and closer to home, while still providing useful insights into the publics perception on wider political issues.

The aim of the postcards were to extract as much insightful as well as creative answers as possible using questions, which got participants to consider their own idea of a country, community, technology and political ideas.

PostcardsWhat worked?A broad “scattergun” approach, which meant that we got a range of responses from people of variousbackgrounds and ages

What didn’t?Some people misunderstood the exercise, and some people thought we were giving out postcards and helped themselves

44 45

survey

What worked?Lots of responses from a large number of people in a short amount of time

What didn’t?Limited to people already within our networks so a lot of similar answers and limited age range

The online survey provided both quantitative and qualitative data from just under one hundred participants. The quantitative data (shown across) provided the types of age groups answering the survey which tended to be relatively young, between nineteen and thirty five. Most did not trust all politicians and just under half trusting none of them. Most participants considered themselves political aware but not active with a quarter who see themselves as both aware and active. Roughly just under half felt that they understand how to effect political change with most others feeling they do not. The qualitative data from whether the participants trusted politicians produced a majority of negative answers towards politicians. The answers produced the impression that politics was out of touch and incapable of displaying honesty. The question relating to who the participants actually trusted was commonly closer to home and the small/closer community networks they form. Some participants expressed some rich ideas of effecting political change that tended to point towards a grassroots level change.

SurveyResults

95 People

How old are you?

Are you registered

to vote?

Do you trust

politicians?

Politically aware

or active?

Have you ever voted in one of

these elections

Did you vote in

the recent Scottish

Independence Referendum? Effect political

change?

Do you feel like you

understand how to:

Which of the following do you do?

Attend demonstrations about issues that I care about:Usually - 6.49%Sometimes - 38.96%Never - 58.44%

Donate money to issues that I care about:Usually - 15.19%Sometimes - 56.96%Never - 29.11%

Attend meetings about issues that I care about:Usually - 7.59%Sometimes - 40.51%Never - 51.90%

Sign petitions about issuesthatI care about:Usually - 39.24%Sometimes - 54.43%Never - 6.33%

Yes - 77.42% No - 13.98% Not Eligible - 4.30% Not Registered - 4.30%

Yes - 77.66% No - 14.89%Not Eligible - 3.19%Not Registered - 4.26%

Yes - 49.45% No - 36.26%Not Eligible - 6.59%Not Registered - 7.69%

Yes - 31.82%No - 22.73%Not Eligible - 35.23%Not Registered - 10.23%

Yes29.79% Yes

48.28%

Yes1.35%

No43.68%

No9.57%

Not eligible

52.13%

Not registered

8.51%Don’t know

what it means6.90%

Don’t know what it means

2.33%

Some of them

55.41%

Both activeand aware

24.42%

Aware butnot active

59.30%

Not relevantto my political

system1.15%

Local Election?

European Election?

General Election?

Not eligible

1.08%

Not applicable

8.60%

19-2537.08%

26-3549.44%

36-456.74%

46-604.49%

60+2.25%

Yes80.65%

No9.68%

Scottish ParliamentElection?

No44.59%

46 47

To run the workshop, we were invited to join a meeting of a Polish Society in Glasgow in the traditional Sikorski Polish Club at Parkgrove Terrace existing from the 1960. Initially, the meeting was held by the younger members of the society. However, as the workshop went on, more observers of different ages and backgrounds joined the activity. Participants divided themselves in three groups: one entirely male, one with majority of female participants and one created out of middle-aged random “observers” who decided to join the game. At the beginning of the activity, the groups were asked to create their political parties. They could choose their main areas of focus, write their manifesto and draw their leader and typical voters. Given rather informal character of the meeting, two out of three groups decided to approach the task in a witty way, basing their political names and manifesto around drinking culture.

workshop

However, once the group task was finished and the participants were asked to present their political parties, we observed that even if the name and the manifesto started as a joke idea, it provoked a serious and politically relevant discussion while confronting it with other participants. After presenting and discussing the exercise on the forum, we naturally moved to a more general discussion about politics. Everyone was rather enthusiastic about the activity and eager to discuss further. We managed to get some interesting insights about the political situation and attitudes in Poland. Participants agreed that politics concerns most aspects of our everyday lives: Overall, it was fascinating to witness how initial fun game became a trigger to a serious and realistic discussion about current politics in an informal environment.

What worked?Getting to observe people in a relaxed environment where they naturally social-ise and discuss their lives and the things that concerned them, people from one culture but a wide range of backgrounds

What didn’t?People were initially wary of discussing politics in a social setting, but the game helped, and often the participants used humour as a way of expressing serious opinionswould have been nice to try it with more than one group, but time limitations didn’t allow it

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HILLHEAD PRIMARy

An observation of a protest in front of Glasgow city council building provided a great opportunity to witness a higher level of political action since the independence referendum. The protest over the lack of classroom space at hillhead primary school involved teachers, parents and children who demonstrated an increased levels of political engagement in their local community when surrounding around a common issue.

The protest demonstrated the capability of a community to organise themselves and actively raise awareness for local political decision that they did not support. This protest was conducted through multiple channels from both an online petition and local display of support around an issue.

observation

GRANGEMOUTH FRACkING

An observation at Grangemouth Oil Refinery about the recent announcements by INEO and the Scottish Government. Falkirk already has an air pollution problem, the worries by the local people were that fracking could pollute the water supply. Speaking to people, they seemed to think that despire the fact that it would bring more jobs to the area they were unwilling to deal with the environmental cost that the shale gas extraction would bring.

People came from all over the UK to take part in the protest, including Wales and Cheshire, which are active anti-fracking protest sites. The focus was on “people before politics”, with everyone welcome if they were against fracking.

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What didn’t?People too busy to talk sometimesNot enough time to organise attendance at more political events

What worked?Getting to see politics in action, and listen to people expressing political opinions. As these are already politicised spaces, people are much more ready to engage in discussion

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define

synthesis

adbuctive sythesis uses both

inductive and deductive

reasoning in order to formulate

solutions

53

synthesis workshop

The synthesis workshop with Ian Atkinson provided the opportunity to start synthesising the research data by thinking about the evidence gathered and start summarising conclusions and identifying insights.

The analyse of data from the evidence wall was deconstructed to then understand constituent parts that produced several hypotheses, clues and reasons to surface.

The method called abductive synthesis was used to connect several pieces of evidence together to begin to formulate tensions. The tensions from the evidence forming insights allowed several opportunities to emerge. A landscape of opportunities was then mapped under various categories before being placed on a dual dimension map to identify their level of political engagement and community involvement.

Grouping

Reinforcing your opinion(Selective Attention) from broader range of sources

Negative drivers for

positive results

What engages?

What do we care about?

(Selfishness, I want more - never satisfied)

LanguagePolitical education (Expers vs. citizens)

(Trust vs. Anonymity)

Non-traditional-power

Online to real world

Forms of protest

Powerless

Lack of trust Transparent

Language

Access toinformation

Mechanisms

Tensions

TRADITIONAL MEDIA VS.

NEW TECHNOLOGY

YOUNG PEOPLE ENGAGEMENT

LOCAL VS. MACRO

CENTRALISATION VS.

DECENTRALISATION

POLITICIANS

CITIZENS

GAP

VS. RESPONSIBILITY ISSUES

'ANONYMOUS' PROTEST

LONG-TERM POLICES VS.

ATTRACTIVENESS OF SHORT-TERM SOLUTIONS

(POPULISM)

HUMAN NATURE

DESIRE VS.

FEELING OF REAL INFLUENCE

Disillusion vs. Hope

REFERENDUMIdeal vs. Party politics

But loads of people joined parties afterwards

Your voice being heard once, can be heard again

54

Political Engagement

Co

mm

unity

Invo

lve

me

nt

DISINTERESTED & POWERLESS

DISINTERESTED & POWERFUL

INTERESTED & POWERFUL

INTERESTED & POWERLESS

Peo

ple

Informa tion

Redefine what politics means

and it mechanisms

More attractive, fun forms

of engagement

Provide local and

global forums

Facilitate trust by removing

barrier between communities

Provide information

in a moreaccessible, visual way

Creating common ways of

communicating/understanding

common language

Make politics transparent

Redefine/recreate political language that explain issues in

an simple way

Make space/platform/

forumsfor people

Make politicians available

Gap between citizens &

government

GAP between DESIRE to beinvolved &

REAL INFLUENCE

PEOPLE are more easily

engagedwith (local)

issues

Connect people with similarconcerns

Map 1.

55

power mapsDuring the synthesis phase, an analysis of the research results was done to then pick out key tensions from the “evidence”. Once this was done a “map” of the problem was generated, onto which insights were placed.

Map 1In the bottom left hand corner you have an individual with no political agency / agenda, in the top right you have many people cooperating with both agency and agenda. The x axis represents the journey towards political agenda (knowledge or information), and the y axis represents the journey towards political agency (organisation and cooperation). A “power trajectory” is shown through the centre onto which the key concepts are mapped.

Map 2The above map shows two elements of the brief, people and information. However neglects the other, technology. This shows the extra layer via a Venn Diagram structure. Each of the overlapping areas between two circles (politics, innovation, interaction) lead to the central focus, which is empowerment (= agency + agenda).

Map 3This was a Shear Diagram created in order to show how each element of Map 2 must be balanced in order for a concept to be effective.

PEOPLE

TECH

INFO

SHEAR ZONE

PEOPLE

TECH

INFO

SHEAR ZONE

PEOPLE

TECH

INFO

SHEAR ZONE

PEOPLE

TECH

INFO

SHEAR ZONE

PEOPLE

TECHINFO INNOVATION

POLITICS INTERACTION

POWER

Map 2. Map 3.

56

ANDREW LOCKYER

SHIONA MCCALLUM

ALISON ROWAT

MICHAEL COMERFORDROB VAN

KRANENBURGSTUART

WHIGHAM

MARTHA WARDROP

HEAR PEOPLE’S CONCERNS

GRASSROOTS LEVEL

(local issues) SIGNIFICANT

CHANGE

MORE FREQUENT REFERENDUMS

SOCIAL MEDIA (INTERNET / NETWORKS) TRIGGERING

ENGAGEMENT

ELIMINATE POLITICAL

LANGUAGE BARRIER

POLITICS SHOULD BE MORE

TRANSPARENT

POWER SHOULD BE DEVOLVED /

POWER TO COMMUNITIES

MAKE COUNCILS MORE AWARE

MAKE PEOPLE'S VOICES HEARD

MAKE POLITICS ACCESSIBLE

PEOPLE’S SENSE OF CONTROL

AND INFLUENCE

57

empowering peopleThis map represents the three stages of how to engage people into politics. Based on the evidence collected from the experts’ interviews, the most important topics were highlighted, which have been recurrent in the several interviews that were conducted.

By connecting the different topics, three main ones stood out that represent the three stages of how to get people engaged with politics: The three stages of empowering people in politics. In order to get people engaged in politics, you should give them power. To give them power you have to first of all make politics accessible, then make their voices heard, and finally by doing that people will start to feel that they have control and influence in their own lives and within society.

Three stages of how to engage

people in politics are:

- Make politics accessible

- make people’s voices heard

- empower people

58

Com

munity

Networks

(Dis/)Engagement (Dis/)Trust

Technolo

gy

Po

wer

Tr

ansp

aren

cy

Future

Media Politics

Society

Com

munity

Networks

(Dis/)Engagement (Dis/)Trust

Technolo

gy

Po

wer

Tr

ansp

aren

cy

Future

Media Politics

Society

Com

munity

Networks

(Dis/)Engagement (Dis/)Trust

Tech

nology

Powe

r

Tran

spar

ency

Future

Media Politics

Society

l

Com

munity

Networks

(Dis/)Engagement (Dis/)Trust

Technolo

gy

Po

wer

Tr

ansp

aren

cy

Future

Media Politics

Society

w

e

wepp

w

n

ppppppppp

ttutu

M

ttt

Com

munity

Networks

(Dis/)Engagement (Dis/)Trust

Technolo

gy

Po

wer

Tr

ansp

aren

cy

Future

Media Politics

Society

g)))))

r

t

“A lot of people individually might be concerned about something and they feel quite isolated. Bring people together and hopefully they can support each other...”

Politics

Media

Sociology

Technology

Public

Primary Secondary

“If there was going to be more genuine civic engagement it would need to be on the grassroots level to be a significant change.”

“So it’s not simply going back to the local. It’s going to the local with the full power of network.”

“The role of the media is to de-jargonise politics... make it accessible”

“I trust my family, because I know them and know what to expect from them... I don’t trust politicians.”

59

evidence mapsThese visual maps take the evidence from the primary and secondary research done in the Discovery phase, and turn them into key themes to be synthesised into insights. Each circle shows a different part of the research, including those from the expert interviews and public engagement games and activities. Each of the results were coded by a recurrent theme, and then connections were mapped between each of these themes based on evidence from the research.

The themes used to codify the research were as follows: Community, Networks, (Dis/)Engagement, (Dis/)Trust, Technology, Power, Transparency, Future, Media, Politics and Society.

The origins of the research where divided into the following five areas: Politics, Media, Sociology, Technology and Public.

Once the connections had been mapped per research phase (shown across), each was then mapped onto the complete evidence map (shown above) in order to pick out key areas of interest by concentrations of connections.

The key connections were between Community /Engagement, and Trust / Transparency.

Community Networks

(Dis/)Engagem

ent

(Dis/)Trust

Technology

Power Transparency

Futur

e

M

edia

Polit

ics

Society

60

Do you trust politicians?

Anonymous, survey

“They have only limited view on common people’s problems.”

“The desire to be involved in decision-making continues to outpace the personal sense of efficacy and influence”

“Politics is our life”

“If there was going to be more civic engagement it would

need to be on the grass root level to be a significant change.”

Audit of Political Engagement

Martha Wardrop, Councillor

Prof. Andrew Lockyer, GU

Member of Workshop Game

Gap between politicians

and citizens

Gap betweendesire to be involved

& real influence

People are more easily engaged

with (local) issues

Yes (1.35%)Some of them

(55.41%)

No (44.59%)

“A lot of people individually might be concerned about something

and they feel quite isolated. ”

key

61

key insightsDrawing from both the desk and field research, which were synthesised in several maps, three main insights were taken forward to the Development Phase. It took many discussions to appropriately phrase each of them in order to embrace the most important findings from the extensive research done.

Since politics is such a broad and abstract topic, the Define Phase was used to narrow down the area of interest and identify gaps that prevent people from engaging in civic sphere (Gap between the politicians and citizens; Gap between desire to be involved and real influence).

It was also discovered that people care more about specific issues on different levels, yet they engage more easily when these issue directly concern them or their surrounding, hence the last insight has the word “local” in brackets.

The research naturally led us down the path of grassroots movements, which are local issues that then feed into wider politics.

Having identified the three main insights, it was time to move to the Development Phase.

62 63

Develop

ideation

we used our three key insights

to generate over 50 concept

drawings, which then became

our key concepts

65

ideationThe ideation phase was at the beginning of our concept development, which involved using our key insights along with particular pieces of evidence to create a range of ‘what if’ scenarios with a concept aiming to resolve them. The range of concepts allowed us to identify the most promising ideas before grouping them together.

The process of grouping similar concepts together provided a means of further discovery during our ideation phase, providing the opportunity to identify elements of each that could potentially be merged to complement one another.

This then lead to the identifying five key concepts that we would take forward for further development.

6666

concept 1

keyconcepts

Key InsightPeople are more engaged by (local) issues.

What if? ...we could better connect communities?

The concept Community Dashboard aims to allow members of the community the means to better communicate with the wider network within and out with their own community. The Community Dashboard is a multi functional device providing a service that allows a user to see information on their own home that could be from the energy they are using, to keeping records on food waste. The user has the ability to share tasks with their neighbours and help create a balance of local resources in their community. The service can help people coordinate community action that could lead to political change in their local area.

The Community Dashboard

People care about immediate issues and people (Insight 3)

What if we could better integrate people into their communities?

67

concept 2

Key InsightGap between politicians and citizens, Gap between political desire and power, People care more about (local) issues.

What if? ...the city could become a forum to share issues?

The service Tag Your City is a platform that allows people to voice their concerns on a public level for everyone to see. The service is a way of tagging issues around the physical city that is then displayed on the virtual city. The service allows people the means of tagging local and wider political issues both physically and virtually. The aim of the service is to allow people to proliferate political issues as a means fostering debate both locally and within the wider political sphere. The automatic relay of tags to the council would grant them the ability to see issues of growing concern and respond to them.

Tag Your City

6868

The Robot Avatars is a service that allows its users to physically attended protests from far away through a virtual connection. The Robot Avatars act as surrogates for a user opening a portal to another part of the world. The display of live information seen through the Robot Avatar allows the user the ability to feel part of the demonstration while having access to a web of information that is within the Robot Avatars environment. The form of the Robot Avatars was an issue pending further discussion and development.

concept 3

Key InsightGap between political desire and power, People care more about (local) issues.

What if? ...You could participate in any political action instead of relying on media.

Robot Avatars

69

Pop-Up Spaces is a service that provides safe and open spaces for political discussion. These Pop-Up Spaces resemble the appearance of a virtual environment within a bubble. The virtual environment would display suggestions of political ideas both locally and nationally to encourage discussion and debate. The service would allow the use of Pop-Up Spaces as an education tool to teach people from all ages the meaning of politics and how much it influences their daily lives.

concept 4

Key InsightGap between politicians and citizens, Gap between political desire and power, People care more about (local) issues.

What if? ...the city could become a forum to share issues?

Pop-Up Spaces

7070

Key InsightGap between politicians and citizens, Gap between political desire and power.

What if? ..you could connect/collect local issues to a physical visual space?

concept 5

The Interactive Walls is a service that provides a platform for people to engage with political dis-course in and around their local areas. The service has various touch-points that provide people with the capability to interact and voice their concerns using either public community interactive displays or mobile devices. The display of collected and contributed community information would feed through to a display at George Square close to the council headquarters. The content generated by people in your local area would provide others with insight into emerging issues and common con-cerns in your local area.

Interactive Walls

71

The final concept was a combination of both the ‘Community Dashboard’ and ‘Tag Your City’ concepts renaming it ‘Community Window’. The decision to combine the two concepts was to provide the ability to tag issues in your area as part of a function of the ‘Community Dashboard’. The further developments of this concept lead to mapping out more functions of its service. This allowed links to be created between the social and practical functions of the service.

When initially mapping out the service for concept, the framework created for the levels of networks and levels of participation began to become iden-tified with specific functions. The level of networks related to the spectrum of interaction with the envi-ronment. The level of participation linked to amount of engagement from people using the service. This framework was used to provide an initial under-standing to the structure of the developing concept.

final concept

72

deliver

Mado is a service that

allows you to connect with

your local community to

address issues

75

introducing mado

Mado means window, because this is your window on your community. Mado increases transparency, allows you to observe and learn, view information and also provides an opportunity for you to act on the issues that you care about.

For the council it provides a platform for immediate interaction with communities, and a feedback tool that can be used to improve public services.

Mado is a service that is provided in cooperation with city council and can be used voluntary by those citizen that wish to apply for it.

77

introducing mado

Mado is both a service and a tool, allowing you to make the best of the community in which you live.

Primary functions of Mado allow the user to:

• Share community resources• “Tag” problems or issues in the city to speed up

response times• Better communicate directly with the local

council and coordinate community action.

Share political infomation with friends

Share community resources

Takeyourprofilewith you when you move

Coordinate community action

Browse and tag issues anonymously

Communicate easily with your local council

Use different languageprofiles

Tag problems in your area on the move

Secondary functions allow the user to:

• Share political information with friends• Usedifferentlanguageprofiles• Browse and tag in “incognito” mode• Taketheirprofilewiththemwhentheymove

79

co-motics

Mado is an open platform on which users create andowncontent.Wedefinecomoticsastheservice that can be accessed using the Mado interface, but can also be accessed online or via the Mado app on your device.

Comotics is built on home domotic infrastructure, and allows coordination of resource usage and community network-building within neighbourhood

hubs via home automation technology. Comotics exists in future spaces in order to promote wellbeing and civic empowerment for people living in metropolitan areas.

Domotics revolutionises the way we live in our homes; comotics will revolutionise the way in which we live in our world.

78

Co is for

community

coordinate

collaborate

cooperate

81

POLITICAL POWER

Traditional politics consists of top-down power structures imposed by governments and elected officials,shownintheimageaboveasacirclewithapower line moving from the global (outside) through to the national, regional, and local scale. From our research we found that empowering and informing people at the local level (centre) led to a greater level of political engagement through every level, we show this as a power line moving outwards from people at the centre to the regional, national and global scales.

Mado puts people at the centre by creating local networks, letting grassroots communities communicate with each other about their concerns, as well as their council and government. As shown through our research, communities are the building blocks of society. Mado creates a future in which communities shape themselves, empowering citizens to take ownership of the political landscapes in which they exist.

GLOBAL

Mado creates

networks that enable

grassroots action

within communities

82 83

MotivationLine

+-

Idea Evidence

Network response

Response Level

Council notified

Decision

Feedback

Display in local network

Organising space

clean upGarden

monitoringCoordination

of actions

Tag in app Send to Mado

Check if new

Share idea

Tagging Sharing Feedback Feedback Coordination ControlPriority Ladder

Yes

High

No

Low

user journey 1 - Tagging an idea

service blueprint 1To contextualise Mado and the system behind it, three personas have been created from different age groups and backgrounds. Their journey demonstrates three different uses of Mado ranging from very local community level to a wider national and international scope.

Each action is connected with a touchpoint within theserviceandisdeconstructedtoshowtheflowthrough different levels (individual, local, council/governmental/global), with the individual level as a starting point in every of the three scenarios.

“Community Spirit is very important.”

agnes Dunworth, 68retired schoolteacher

Agnes likes to garden, and she does not have a garden in her building that she can use. In her journey, she spots a disused piece of land that she thinks will make a lovely garden and “tags” it using ther Mado app. Once done, this gets shared in her local network and if enough people like the idea it gets escalated to the council for planning permission. These are her touchpoints.

84 85

MotivationLine

+-

Feedback

Display in network

Coordination of actions

Share event

Event

Issue Evidence

Response Level

Council notified

Government notified

Project re-assessment

Social consultation

Tag in app Send to Mado

Check if new Take action

Tagging Reacting FeedbackConsulting CoordinationPriority Ladder

YesParticipate Organise

Profiled Incognito

Petition

Protest

Local MP

High

No

Low

user journey 2 - Tagging a problem

service blueprint 2

“Influence starts at a local and regional level by being organised with the grassroots...”

garyMcLaren, 35Engineer

Gary has a wife and a young child, and is very interested in environmental issues. In his journey he sees several trees being cut down and when trying to tag it on Mado he discovers that this has been going on all over the area in way of building a new road and has many tags already. Mado offers him the option to take action, and he chooses to organise a protest. Due to the high turnout for the protest against the building of the road, the issue gets escalated to council and then on to government level. These are his touchpoints with the service.

86 8787

MotivationLine

+-

Participate Coordinate

Activate Register

Analyse interests

Suggest local activities

and groups

Collect Data

Personalise

Touch with personal device

Touch with hand

Registration Interest Matching Personalisation Coordination

Yes

No

user journey 3 - New user

service blueprint 2

“It can be difficult to organise with people in an area if you are new there.”

MEIMEIHAN, 21student

MeiMei is new to the area and is interested in campaigning and raising awareness of the Hong Kong pro-democracy campaign as it is something she is very interested in and has friends taking part in.Inordertofindoutwhatisalreadyhappeningin her area, she registers her interests on Mado and gets recommendations for groups where she can share her interests and concerns with likeminded people.

89

technology mapUsers can connect to Mado through their mobile application to tag and evidence issues of concern or directly at their homes to interact with the content. Mado creates a network with other similar devices to share content with fellow users. Issues of higher response rate or importance are redirected to a responsible council/institutional department connected to the network.

Working as a device within the comotics system, Mado has potential to connect with the networked objects of the domotics system and help balance resources of a household and ultimately of the local area. Mado can enhance and coordinate local activities such as community gardens or pollution control by monitoring local environment using external sensor network within the Internet of Things.

Domotics(comotics)

Environmental

The Mado comotics service

can be accessed using a

home or portable device,

or the mado product

90 91

mado interactionMado is an interactive device that uses touch screen, gesture and speech recognition technology to maximise accessibility and the user convenience. When the device is wall mounted it can allow a user to freely interact with the mado interface using gesture controls. This allows the user to make quick and decisive interactions on the go.

When combined with speech recognition the user can combine multiple interchangeable interactions. The device name “Mado” is the keyword used to

initiate speech recognition interaction following several commands the user may wish to follow. The devices portable capability allows the user to interact with the interface using touch screen gestures when moving around their home.

HOME VIEW TAG EXPAND PERSONALISE

ZOOM VIEW TAG TAKE ACTION TAG

Mado enables

interaction and

participation with

community action

92 93

branding. why round?

From political perspective, round shape has been always considered to be inclusive. It does not favour any of the sides. It is evident in political symbolism, for example, round table discussion where every person has equal rights to participate.

From an ergonomic perspective: because your eyes are round. Because the world is round. Because round is a familiar, organic shape. Because it enables to intuitively zoom in and out, visualising the levels of

engagement, from issues of your biggest concern in the middle to the ones that present the national or global context, like a lens.

This design is for a future society, and through research it became evident that industry leaders (including Toshiba) are investing in round screen technologies and new user interfaces to overcome the technical limitations that this shape causes today.

the Round shape is

inclusive and politically

stable, and allows you to

focus in and out

94 95

conclusionThisprojecttookusonaroutethatonfirstglancemay not seem to be overtly political, however through our research we found that the politics can include a variety of different things that people encounter in their daily lives, and that the best way to politically engage and motivate people was to listen to what they cared about, and create networks that facilitated discussion about these things.

Traditional politics sees communities and democracy as separate entities, however the new model of grassroots politics that was encountered as part of theresearchcreatescommunitiesfirst,andusesthese as the building blocks of society. Society is a pre-requisite to any sort of political system, and the creation of networks that facilitate discussion and discourse of any kind within a local community also creates a platform for political interaction on a variety of levels.

The recent Referendum on Scottish Independence was a fascinating case study as it provided the opportunity to look at what motivated sections of the population who are not normally political to engage with politics. However what was found in most cases was that people are generally more motivatedbyspecificissuesthatrelatetotheirparticular concerns, and it was through these networks that people were exposed to increased political information and motivation.

Mado is a means to create these networks in metropolitan spaces, where daily encounters can sometimes be limited to entirely commercial transactions.

By creating these networks, Mado creates spaces for community interactions, which lead to further network-building, which leads to political action.

MADO builds community

networks as a platform

for grassroots political

action and engagement

96

responseacknowledgements

Studio LeadersElio CaccavaleMil Stricevic

TutorsIrene Bell, Gordon Hush, Brian Dixon, Ian Grout, Ian Reid and Stuart Bailey

Visting Tutors Raoul Rickenberg (Parsons School of Design)Kenta Ono (Chiba University)

Workshop LeadersEmma Murphy (Research Methods)Iain Aitchison (Synthesis Workshop)Brian Loranger (Ethnography Workshop)

Studio DevelopmentRoy Shearer (Interactive Prototypes) Rachael Sleight (Product Development)

And everyone who participated in our field research