Abstract
Whilst cultural diversity in codesign is celebrated, sessions where practitioners work outside of their own culture can often become challenging if practitioners are ill-prepared to acknowledge their position, and work alongside epistemologies outside of their own. In this paper, I explore how theories of reflexive practice can provide this preparedness for cross-cultural codesign. Reflexivity, where personal histories are reflected upon and situated within broader social contexts, is evidenced to help dampen the effects of cultural bias, often implicated in codesign. Despite this, reflexivity is not strongly elucidated within current training frameworks. This study works to discover and embed methods of reflexive practice into a codesign training toolkit. Prior to its creation, a thematic analysis of ten toolkits is conducted to ascertain if, how, and where training on cultural awareness, reflexivity, and positionality exists within current approaches. I also integrate autoethnographic writing into this work, to make explicit the tacit knowledge inherent to this personally-driven research. Presenting a new training framework, this work draws from Buddhist conceptualisations of the self as interconnected, impermanent and ever-changing, which is found to promote deeper levels of introspection; spaces where one can sit with the discomfort arising from reflection, and the unpleasantness oftentimes associated with discoveries of privilege and bias. Proposed here is that adapting to discomfort in this manner prepares practitioners to work alongside, not against, unfamiliar ways of knowing; I argue that this is the central tenet in ensuring all cultures are respected and empowered to participate in codesign practices.
Presenters
Ashleigh DharmawardhanaResearch Assistant, Media and Communications, RMIT University, Victoria, Australia
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Codesign, Cross-cultural codesign, Pluriversal design, Decolonial design, Reflexivity, Human-centered design
