Day 1- The First Fifty Years of Civic Design

New practitioners, new organizations, new efforts.

A young field — with old roots, and we forget those roots at our own peril.

• Accessibility
  • University of California, Berkeley — Ed Roberts, 1962; paralysed. Center for Independent Living. Deeply invested in individual needs; curb cuts.
  • Capitol Crawl, 1990 — dozens of people rolled up in wheelchairs, got up and crawled. Led to Americans with Disabilities Act.
  • In the 1990s, IT system widespread; Section 508 – Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
  • Conversations of physical space, rooted in freedom and self-determination
• Participation
  • Incorporating feedback in work; user research.
  • Sherry Arnstein — designing the citizen engagement model, led to publishing the article ‘Ladder of Citizen Participation, 1969’.
  • William Whyte — proposed a project to the New York city planning commission, performed research techniques, more importantly – simple direct observation. 
  • Center for Urban Pedagogy, 1997 — started out with direct community engagement.
  • Denmark’s MindLab 2002-2018 — hugely influential, truly service design consultancies in the public sector.
  • Helsinki Design Lab 2008-2013
  • UK’s Government Digital Service, 2011 — users are the public, they are all around us when we work in the public sector.
  • Taiwan’s gOv and vTaiwan, 2012 — active and civically engaged community, building consensus that the government should consider.

“Citizen participation without the redistribution of power is an empty and frustrating process for the powerless.”

We have lots of answers but very few questions.

The first fifty years have brought us here.