CN15 - Smuggling ideologies? Inquiring into the underlying ideas embedded in design for public governance and policymaking

Conveners: María Ferreira, Federico Vaz, & Nicolás Rebolledo

This conversation asks participants to inquire about the underlying ideas of the use of design methods within the public sector, specifically when contributing towards the development of public policies or governance. We want to discuss the potential ideological cooptation of the design approaches currently in use. Likewise, it is aimed to bring together practitioners and researchers to debate the political implications of using design methods in the public sphere. The session will consist of provocation, discussion and questions for further development. Participants will be asked to exchange their thoughts, firstly in groups and finally in a plenary discussion. There will be three groups, each organized around a sub-topic and facilitated by one of the convenors in such a way that it will feed back into the overall discussion. To end the session, participants and convenors will reflect and bring questions for further discussion, highlighting both the agreement points as well as those of dissent, to draft a potential research agenda on the topic. All outputs and participants’ contributions will be captured by the convenors at every stage of the conversation, organised and shared in already existing online platforms to guarantee access to the generated material, as well as to foster after-conference discussion.

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