Join the EU Design Days 2022 - side event of the New European Bauhaus Fest!
This year’s edition will focus on “Will beauty actually save the world? How can design contribute to the green transition and help us to achieve the goals of the EU Green Deal?” It will be our 10th anniversary and to celebrate it accordingly, this year the EU Design Days will be part of the New European Bauhaus Festival organised by the European Commission.
Piotr Swiatek, Design4Innovation Project Manager, will participate as a speaker and workshop facilitator during the event. Piotr will present his scoping study of design for democracy, which aims to explore whether democratic institutions and governance are a design subject and if so, what design research should address to create or move that discipline forward. Design in government, as a tool for developing inclusive public services and policies has grown significantly. The New European Bauhaus was the first policy initiative of that scale in the European Commission to be developed using the co-design approach. However, in the era when public distrust towards government is a default public emotion, how can we ensure that people want to engage in public decision-making in the first place? While so much has changed in terms of society, economy, technology, the democratic scaffolding remains unchanged in the last over hundred years and for most of us comes down to a ritualistic 'x' on a ballot paper every few years. In the times of 15-second insta-engagement, how determined a citizen needs to be to respond to a public consultation of hundreds-page long and complex policy document? This scaffolding is also under increasing pressure from populism and identity politics that turn liberal values against themselves. While we are re-discussing our values for the economy, moving towards green, inclusive and beautiful, shouldn't we look at what matters in our communities and societies organisation? And finally what design can do in that regard? Piotr will present the theses of his exploratory research and facilitate a discussion among participants on the future of this discipline. This study is funded through Cardiff Met University programme, Santander Global Academies Fellowship.
Register here and join the discussions with experts, practitioners, designers, researchers and policymakers!