Designing Authentic Experiences for Social Activism and Community Engagement
(Title Option B) Soft Activism: Social design that generates platforms for ideas, dialogue and services that inspire ownership and longevity
The school of thought that believes design is more than creating physical objects is not new, nor is it revolutionary, the conceptual framework of design thinking has been around for years. It gained momentum around 2006, when businesses and companies alike were beginning to learn that the cyclical process of thinking like a designer was universal and malleable enough that it could be applied to any profession. Design thinking has been successfully adopted by global corporations as a tool for thinking creatively and innovating in order to expand and increase profit. On the opposite side of the spectrum, design thinking is beginning to be adopted by government and organizations in the public sector to tackle complex, big-picture problems, transform performance, inspire social innovations and better inform the public audience about their global missions. This particular application of design thinking has the power to truly impact social change and the way that innovations are made in the social sector.
More recently we’ve observed the trend of philanthropic organizations in the social sector utilizing technology, especially social media, as a vehicle for communicating to the public, and to further campaigns. In the ever-connected society we live in, we have incredibly powerful tools for activism readily available at our disposal, through which we can quickly disseminate information to the masses. A perfect example of such a tool is the viral video. Perhaps the most popular example of a social activist campaign video that went viral, is the recent Kony 2012 short film created by Invisible Children to promote their movement to make infamous, and eventually capture and arrest Ugandan war criminal Joseph Kony. In the span of a few weeks, the video garnered over 100 million views over the internet, largely due to the video’s high quality production, which included elegant 3-d effects, and the incredibly well crafted sentimental story. Unfortunately, despite how well designed this campaign was, design simply wasn’t enough to sustain interest and encourage social engagement.