• No results found

Speculating Future Government: Designerly approach for a preferred future

N/A
N/A
Protected

Academic year: 2021

Share "Speculating Future Government: Designerly approach for a preferred future"

Copied!
58
0
0

Loading.... (view fulltext now)

Full text

(1)

SPECULATING FUTURE GOVERNMENT

Designerly approach for a preferred future

Himanshu Rohilla

Interacton Design

One-year Master’s Programme 15 Credits

Spring 2018

(2)

ABSTRACT

Contemporary society is rapidly changing. The emergence of social inequalitess and the use of new technologies to accesss communicates produce and exchange informatons among otherss deeply afects citzens and the complex interactons among citzenss businesses and governments. This thesis explores how might technology in the future enable beter communicaton with governments and higher

partcipaton of citizens in decision ma ing processes? It showcases a designerly way to approach this queston while designing for interactons with an explicit intenton of placing value in citzen partcipaton in decision making processess with an aim towards plurality. The design outcomes showcase the possibility of employing technology to achieve greater levels of democratc citzen partcipatons but that which would require major restructuring of government organisatons and new ways of working with data.

(3)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT...i 1. INTRODUCTION...1 2. THEORY...2 2.1 Futures...2 2.2 Governance...5 2.3 Design...6 2.4 Speculatve Civics...7

3. STATE OF THE ART...7

3.1 Design for Politcs...8

3.2 Politcal Design...9

3.3 Somewhere Between for Politcs and Politcal...11

4. METHODS...11 4.1 Co-Design...12 4.2 Speculatve Design...12 4.3 Design Tactcs...13 4.4 Ethical consideratons...14 5. DESIGN PROCESS...14

5.1 Images of the Future...14

5.2 Counterfactual Worlds...16

5.3 Agonism and Decision Making...18

5.4 Alternatve Present: Applying Dseign Tactcs...21

5.5 Trends: Collectve Acton and Expected Technologies...24

6. RESULTS AND FINAL DESIGN...27

6.1 Collectve Intelligence...27

6.2 From Quanttatve Partcipaton to Qualitatve Partcipaton...27

6.3 Home Assistant...28

6.4 Filling in the Design Space...33

6.5 Future Work: Experiental Scenario...38

7. DISCUSSION...38 7.1 Implicatons...40 8. CONCLUSION...41 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...42 REFERENCES...43 APPENDIX I...47

Exploratory Scenario Oriented Design Game...47

APPENDIX II...54

(4)

1. INTRODUCTION

This is an independent piece of research work as part of and within a larger design research group at Malmo University on an EU Policy Lab project ttled The Future of Government 2030+: A Citizen Centric Perspectve on New Government Models1. The goal of which is to envision and conceptualize alternatve scenarios and

possible future government models. As a designer I started out with the following brief:

Contemporary society is rapidly changing. The emergence of social inequalitess migratons and the use of new technologies to accesss communicates produce and exchange informatons among otherss deeply afects citzens and the complex interactons among citzenss businesses and governments. The present changes are infuencing power relatons in the society and might lead to new forms of democracy and governance. The overall aim of the project is to beter understand the changing relatonships among citzenss businesses and governments.1

I chose to embark on an endeavour to speculate about the future of government because of my personal belief that there is a problem with the status quo. While I truly believe in democracy I feel that the current versions of representatve and deliberatve democracy are outdateds which were formed based on conditons of a tme that are very diferent from the present. There is a perceived decline in trust in politcians around the world and a large number of governments do not seem to be representatve of the many voices that are present in society today. If democracy literally means “rule of the people”s can we truly ever achieve that? I then set out to explore what might design have to ofer when thin ing about future governments? I will try to answer this by exploring in a designerly ways how might technology in the future enable beter communicaton with governments and higher partcipaton of citizens in decision ma ing processes?

This thesis situates itself on the intersecton between future studiess governance and design. It uses theory from each domain to guide through in the process. Dator’s (2002) basic paradigm in future

studies sets a framework to structure the work in the realm of future studies and as a designer I make a choice to work towards a preferred future (Candys 2010) with an aim to present real workable alternatves. The politcal theory of agonism (Connollys 1995; Moufes 2000; Tullys 2014) provides a basis for working with governance in an inclusive plural society which as a designer is my view of a preferred future and is indicatve of my politcs on the mater. The research takes on a speculatve approach and uses tools from the feld of speculatve design (DiSalvos Jenkinss & Lodatos 2016; Dunne & Rabys 2013; Malpasss 2017) for exploring design possibilites. The design process and choice of tools is also then expected to serve as inspiraton for members of the EU Policy Lab. The fnal results are presented to showcase realisable alternatves for a preferred futures using mostly currently available technology with incremental updates. This is done so as to demonstrate that the choice of the future is based to a large extent on the intenton initally set out. Personally I try and seek out a transformatve method of governance to counter the declining trust in politcians and governments around the world.

1 The Future of Government 2030+: A Citizen Centric Perspectve on New Governance Models

(5)

2. THEORY

This thesis is an atempt at flling in part of the design space at the intersecton of three main themess namelys futuress governances and design. The following sectons examine these three themess startng with future studiess then governance with a democratc theory for a beter represented citzenrys followed by design as an approach to envision alternatve futures. Finally situatng the work at the intersecton of these three themes and in a branch of interacton design referred as speculatve civics.

I use the ‘basic paradigm of future studies’ (Secton 2.1.1) as a foundaton and build onto it using the ‘images of future’ (Secton 5.1). This chapter (chapter 2) in general and secton 2.2 specifcally elaborates on the ‘theory’ that guides the works the ‘methods’ are described in Chapter 4 and later used as described in Chapter 5. Finally ‘trends’ in technology guide the speculaton for a preferable future leading to the design concepts in Chapter 6.

This thesis is intended to serve as an example in thinking about future governments beyond the current systems of representatve and deliberatve democracys using a speculatve design approach. It is not within the scope of this research to create or recommend fnal conceptss rather it is to present a designerly way to approach the problem.

2.1 FUTURES

Thinking about the future has occupied many a great minds over centuries. From science fcton writers mostly trying to create wonders presentng in a senses a utopian dream or a dystopian disaster to business futurists with their largely “pedestrian predictons” (Bells Fletchers Greenhills Grifthss & McLeans 2013)s the domain of futures research has also become a “scientfc discipline” (p. 5). Over a century agos H.G. Wells’ (1895) The Time Machine popularised our yet unatained quest for tme travels but also inspired a lot of scientfc writng in futuress sciences science fctons culture and other related domains (Hadens n.d.). Dator(1979) in his early works talks about four generic futuress which he says are the fnite number of story types that people narrate. These are stories about a future of contnued growth, collapse of societys

disciplined society or a transformatonal image of the future in which something drastc happens. Stuart Candy (2010) in his thesiss The Futures of Everyday Lifes uses these as classifers for some prominent stories about the future:

“Contnue: 2001: A Space Odyssey; Idiocracy; Westworld; RoboCop; Minority Report; 2046; The Long Boom; The Ultmate Resource 2.

Collapse: Mad Max; The Road; The Coming Anarchy; The Long Emergency; Children of Men; Waterworld; 2012; The Day Afer Tomorrow.

Discipline: 1984; Brave New World; Gataca; The Handmaidʼs Tale; Ecotopia; An Inconvenient Truth; Whole Earth Discipline; The Limits to Growth; Cradle to Cradle; Natural Capitalism. Transform: The Matrix; The Singularity is Near; ʻWhy the Future Doesnʼt Need Usʼ;

Accelerando; Citizen Cyborg; Radical Evoluton; The Book of Revelaton; 2012: The Return of Quetizalcoatl” (p. 48-50)

(6)

This then seems like a rather simplistc classifcaton and most of the stories seem to lie in more than one of the above classifcatons. Nonetheless it does serve as an easy to grasp tool to capture the breadth of themes for the future. Further analysing these stories one may also say that they do not capture the actual breadth of futures thinking that ought to be in reality. Thiss as Dunne and Raby (2013) suggest could be because visual storytelling (as is the case in some of the stories above) rely on recognisability to drive the narratve to retain the viewer. It focuses on using already existng visual cliches giving up on inventveness. Literature on the other hand is able to achieve a farther reaching imaginaton because it makes the reader imagine and create the world the story lives in. These story types do provide a simplistc tool for one to start at the present and get a handle on to speculate into the future for says what a future of discipline might look like for a certain domain or topics like fertlity and women’s rights in The Handmaid’s Tale.

Further on much of the popular science fcton hass in the pasts focused on technological advances and its afect on society. While this hasinspired technological advances like hover boards and self lacing shoes as seen in the flm Back to the Future II (Zemeckiss 1989)s they have only yet appeared as self balancing boards2s and limited-editon and expensive ‘adaptve lacing’ shoes3. Then on the other hand are dystopian

stories visualising the collapse of human society due to human actvity or ideals. These stories are an atempt to inspire discussions about the consequences of the rapid industrialisaton and the current growth mindsets but they haven’t had quite the efect one would have expected.

2.1.1 Paradigms in futures research

Mannermaa (1991) proposes the use of the idea of paradigm for futures research. He defnes paradigm ass “the general mode of how things (in a society and) in the scientfc community of futures researchers are repeatedly being done” (p. 350). He goes on to describe three paradigms for futures research:

1. Descriptve futures research based on the idea of using science as a tool for describing and

explaining the possibilites of the future in as factual a form as possible based on the realites of the past. This form of research is the closest to predicton of the future and based on the use of

quanttatve methods.

2. Scenario paradigms based on the idea that the future is not wholly predictable and where the main purpose is not to predict but to construct various alternatves of the future and how one would get there. Using more qualitatve methods like analogiess scenerized utopias or catastrophe models. Tending to a general trend of utopias and dystopias that we see in many of the stories above. 3. Evolutonary paradigm on the other hand has its roots in the ‘study of complexs self-organising

evolutonary systems’. “The role of futures research in this model of social development is on the one hand to identfy signs of breakss social movementss technological innovatonss signs of destabilizaton etc. On the other hands it is to outline possible alternatves afer the ‘bifurcaton’s and in this way to create a kind of a map of possibilites for the future.” (Mannermaas 1991: p. 358) Where ‘bifurcaton’ refers to Kuhn’s (1962) terminology of a paradigm shif.

This thesis is guided by the evolutonary paradigm in futures researchs by identfying technological

innovatons for a possible future and a bifurcaton in politcal life to a more inclusive and citzen controlled governance.

(7)

Dator (2002) introduces the “basic paradigm” in future studies (fgure. 2.1) with “’images of the future’ in people’s minds” (p. 7) at its centre. These “images” are what he believes can be studied through research since the future itself cannot be studied as it does not yet exist. Studying these “images” can enable one to antcipate how people actng on them might push society into a certain directon. These images are not right or wrong but exist as they ares as facts in people’s imaginatons. This is one of the tools a futures researcher has at their disposal while “forecastng alternatve futures” or “inventng preferred futures” (p. 8). I will come back to this in secton 5.1 to describe the ‘images of the future’s in the presents hence becoming aware and building onto those images.

Figure 2.1 Basic paradigm in future studies (Dator, 2002)

2.1.2 The possibility space

Using Candy’s (2010) version of the possibility cone as shown in fgure 2.2s I will try to situate my work somewhere in the preferable futures space. I would like to admit that this is a clear values-driven space which is politcally subjectve and cannot stand to represent a collectve. While I base my work on the images of the futures its presence in a certain tme and context cannot be ignored. The politcal theory is explained in secton 2.2. What I wish to achieve though is to showcase by example how a certain preferable future can be imagined and designed for in the present.

Figure 2.2 Possible, probable, and preferable futures as subsets of possibility space (Candy, 2010: p. 35) "All this talk of possibility spaces coness mapss the actual and virtuals possible and preferable -- these are all parts of a pragmatcs heuristc framework with which to manage the fact that change happenss and that we seem to be partly responsible for its albeit in ways we have never fully grasped. The ultmate reason to engage in futures works thens and especially to create scenarios -- which are merely tools to help us think -- is to enrich our perceptons and optons in the evolving present " (Candys 2010: p. 44)

(8)

2.2 GOVERNANCE

2.2.1 Agonistic pluralism

In this thesis to use a theoretcal framework to work with through designs I refer to Chantal Moufe. In Deliberatve Democracy or Agonistc Pluralism (Moufes 2000) she proposes an agonistc approach for democracy. Diferentatng ‘the politcal’ from ‘politcs’s where ‘the politcal’ refers to “the dimension of antagonism which can take many forms and can emerge in diverse social relatonss a dimension that can never be eradicated” (Moufes 2009: p. 550) and ‘politcs’ referring to “the ensemble of practcess

discourses and insttutons which seek to establish a certain order and to organise human coexistence”. She argues that it is the wishing away of ‘the politcal’ in its antagonistc dimensions which “impedes liberal theory’s ability to grasp the roots of violence and to envisage politcs in an adequate way”. The need for consensus in liberal democratc politcs pushes towards the creaton of an ‘us’ without a corresponding ‘them’s even though this us/them relaton is at the root of pluralistc human relatons. Hence leading ‘us’ on a path of destroying the ‘them’ whose ideology does not match with ours. She proposes that the need is not to antagonise the ‘them’ but to recognise their right to defend their ideas as much as our owns calling for a form of agonism i.e. “struggle between adversaries” as opposed to a “struggle between enemies”. In atemptng to realise democracy under conditons of deep dissent Westphal (2014) diferentates three agonistc theoriess that of Chantal Moufe (2000s 2009)s William Connolly (1995s 2005)s and James Tully (Tullys 2014) and their distnct ideas about adequate ways of dealing with conficts.

“According to Moufes politcs is a struggle for hegemony whichs in order to be carried out democratcallys requires a taming of conficts. Connolly envisions politcs as a process of pluralisaton in the course of which conficts are regulated in favour of new and formerly excluded identtes. For Tullys politcs is a dialogical process directed towards mutually accepted terms of recogniton which requires confict partes to negotate their conficts and arrive at fair compromises.” (Westphals 2014: p. 12-13s emphasis added)

These provide three specifc tools or characteristcs that insttutons and/or designers can use to aim for achieving results with an agonistc outlook. For all threes liberty and equality consttute the shared ground that is needed between adversaries.

This research uses agonistc pluralism as an ideal to strive fors with conditons for taming of confictss including previously excluded voicess and using dialogical processes to arrive at fair compromises. These are employed in a workshop later described in secton 5.3.

2.2.2 Publics

Carl DiSalvo in Design and the Constructon of Publics (2009) discusses the relevances even almost a century laters of John Dewey’s The Public and Its Problems (1927) and especially so in design studies. While publics iss generally speakings the coming together of people around a common issues Dewey was more concerned with the conditons for consttuton of publics and how such consttuton might be prevented. The idea that publics are constructed allows an opening for design in aiding the constructon of such publics around ‘maters of concern’ (Latours 2004). Since the creaton of publics is connected to its origins in an issues that issue might be fertle ground for formaton of many publics around it. Dewey’s idea of publics and politcal

(9)

actors within a public” (DiSalvos 2009: p. 50). This is also how the idea of Dewey’s publics plays well together with that of agonistc pluralism.

While it is the coming together around an issue that consttutes a publics it is not the issue itself but the communicaton of actons and efects of such issues that helps assemble the public. The discovery of issues and the communicaton about the issue and between the people facing the issues is what helps with the consttuton of a public. This is a space where design can play a part (DiSalvos 2009).

2.3 DESIGN

While ataining a predicted future was largely a quest for technologys over the past decade or sos design and futures thinking have also “grown into a more intmate and collaboratve relatonship” (Candy & Dunagans 2017). This is also highlighted by the emergence of various terms that are associated with a ‘futures thinking’ mindset or generally a realm of conceptual design likes design fcton (Sterlings 2005)s critcal design (Dunne & Rabys 2001)s speculatve design (Dunne & Rabys 2013)s experiental futures (Candys 2010) and adversarial design (DiSalvos 2012). These design practces along with others like refectve design (Sengerss Boehners Davids & Kayes 2005)s slow design (Hallnäs & Redströms 2001)s and counterfunctonal design (Pierce & Pauloss 2014) aim to “present and defne interrogatves discursives and experimental approaches in design practce and research.” (Malpasss 2017: p. 4).

Human experience is the protagonist in futures research. The most impactul ideas and stories showcase the efect of the future world on the human experience. The act of future making can then be thought of as designing the human experience of the future. To do this would require one to start with knowing about the expected experience in the future. Designs as a tool with intentons is well suited for this purposes with an object to multply the scope of possibilites and present them for discussions debates and eventually for consideraton. The queston I then try to explore in this thesis iss what does design have to ofer for thin ing about future governments?

2.3.1 Conceptual design

In Speculatve Everythings Dunne and Raby (2013) situate “conceptual design - design about ideas” (p. 11)s about how things could bes in the unreal. Conceptual design usually takes an ideal stances hence proposing a new reality with a new ideal to live upto. It also lives in a parallel space which does not yet exist and hence creates this new world using hypothetcal objects or stories to explore possible futures.

Critcal design as a specifc form of conceptual design can be understood as “embodying ideals and values intentonally at odds” (Dunne & Rabys 201: p. 17) with those of the tme. This idea of challenging the current way of things is what lends the critcality to critcal design. It fnds its roots in the critcal practce of product and industrial design which could possibly be traced back to the tme of Italian ant-design and hence the emphasis on objects as embodying critcality through their form and functon (Malpasss 2017). Critcal design then ofers alternatves to the current way of beings flling in the gap between the reality of now and what could be in the future. Through these alternatives it “can help people construct compasses rather than maps for navigatng new sets of values“ (Dunne & Rabys 2013: p. 44).

Design then serves as a conceptual tool to speculate about the kind of futures citzens may desire or even to simply just showcase the various alternatves to the present.

(10)

2.3.2 Design space

Bo Westerlund (2009) proposes the use of design space as a conceptual tool while creatng knowledge about and working on a design situaton. “The design space is understood as all the possible design solutons that would work; that prospectve users and other stakeholders would fnd meaningful” (p. 35). This is a tool that designers intrinsically use as their design work progresses. In its most crude form it is the broad range of alternatves that designers come up with in a sense marking the boundaries of this

conceptual design space. They then later pick and choose possible alternatves based on a set of criteria which could be determined based on business needs or user needs or usually a combinaton of both. Design space can also help to retrospectvely map out a design situaton and understand its scope and boundaries. When dealing with situatons that are not necessarily problems with a specifc solutons design space or the flling of a design space helps in expanding on alternatves and then narrowing down on the chosen designs. The future of governments as such is not a problem to solve. But it is an endeavour to make the right choices or move in the right directon. It is to understand the consequences of the choices we make. To do so it iss in the frst places paramount to know about the alternatves that are possible and only then could one study the implicatons and make a choice.

Design space for this reason is a designerly tool that the feld of design has to ofer when thinking about the future of governments. This thesis atempts to fll one small secton of this large design space. Through a chosen ideology of agonistc pluralism and using the current trends in technology as constraintss this thesis uses designerly means for tackling the design situaton of alternatves for future governments.

2.4 SPECULATIVE CIVICS

DiSalvos Jenkins & Lodato (2016) in their work explore through design the “relatonship between

computaton and civics” (p. 4979). They choose to call it speculatve civicss where by civics they mean the “modes through which individuals take the role of citzenss involving processes of governance and politcs”. They explore possible alternatves for the future of civics in light of computatonal technology that forms a part of public life already and more so in the future. Using specifc products that tackle specifc situatonss they try to imagine what this technological future might look like. Aligning with the practce of speculatve design they use it as a specifc tactc for research through design (RtD).

This thesis can be said to be a form of speculatve civics wherein the use of technology is explored in relaton to a citzen’s role with and as a government. Using speculatve design as a tactc the design process appropriates current technological trends for a more citzen centric agonistc future.

3. STATE OF THE ART

There has been an increased interest for design in the domain of democracy and governance. But in the mainstreams design work has mostly consttuted of design for democracy where the idea of democracy itself has not been examined. The ideas of our present form of democracy where the aim is to pursue “consensus through actvites of structured deliberaton” (Disalvos 2010: p.1) are taken as granted and design has been used to further this cause and improve partcipaton. DiSalvo (2010) argues that the diversity of ideas in what consttutes democracy itself should have an impact in design. He diferentates between two such forms of designs ‘design for politcs’ and ‘politcal design’s which are discussed below.

(11)

3.1 DESIGN FOR POLITICS

Such designs work to further the cause of current democratc systems and aim to bring in greater partcipaton and provide ease in the access to informaton and services from the governments to the citzens. Many of these are eforts to digitalise governmentss falling in the general domain of e-government projects. Three of the prominent examples are mentoned below.

Policy Lab, UK

One of the prominent examples is from the Policy Lab in the UK (Policy Lab UKs n.d.) which in their own words is “a creatve space where policy teams can develop the knowledge and skills to develop policy in a more opens data-drivens digital and user-centred way”. Their work in the last four years has lead to greater digitalisaton eforts on the gov.uk platorms bringing in ease of use for citzens when it comes to

interactons with the government.

Figure 3.1 – Screen shot from the Policy Lab website (Policy Lab UK, n.d.)

E-Estonia

One of the best examples of a hyper e-government is Estonia with their E-Estonia (“e-Estonia”s

n.d.) initatve which started two decades ago and includes a host of digital services for citzens. Almost four years ago they started an e-Residency programme through which they ofer non-Estonian citzens an opportunity to become e-Residents in efect allowing them to set up businesses in Estonia using it’s digital service network. While it is in no way a residencys it is more than and easier than what any other country currently ofers. Their future plan is to consttute a new digital naton for these digital residents of the world.

(12)

Figure 3.2 Screenshot from the E-Estonia website (“e-Estonia”, n.d.)

Museum of the Future, Dubai

What started out in 2014 as temporary exhibitons with immersive experiences held at the World Government Summits (Museum of Future Government Servicess n.d.) has transformed into Dubai

commissioning a Museum of the Future (The Museum Of The Futures n.d.) set to open by the end of 2019. It is set to become the “world's largest and most excitng home to tomorrow's trends and opportunites”. That a government of a naton with a very low human rights score (Human Rights Watchs 2018) is driving innovaton in the future of governments has huge implicatons. It is a voice within the world which many pay atenton to and hence should not be ignored. The kind of projects at the museum of future

government services exhibitons showcase a techno utopian dream that stll remains very controlling in its top down hierarchy.

Figure 3.3 Screen shots from Museum of Future government exhibitons (2017 & 2015) (The Museum Of The Future, n.d.)

3.2 POLITICAL DESIGN

Politcal design on the other hand is inherently contestatonal and questons the way things are done. DiSalvo also refers to it as Adversarial Design (2012) where he explores how technology and design can provoke and engage the politcal. Examples of such projects can be found on the cusp of societys actvisms arts design and technology. Some examples are mentoned below.

(13)

Million Dollar Blocks

This was one of the frst projects to be undertaken at the Spatal Informaton Design Lab (Krugans Cadoras Reinfurts Williamss & Meisterlins 2006) at Columbia University. The project used geographical informaton systems to map out crime but instead of looking at where crime occurs it mapped out where criminals come froms thereby exposing inherent biases and conditons of incarcerated citzens. What this project does is not support in governance but rather critcally investgate an issues raising questons and challenging the current way of being.

Figure 3.4 Screen shot from Million Dollar Bloc s project (Krugan et al., 2006)

Brixton Pound

This project was born out of the recession of 2008 and aimed to strengthen the tes between local

businesses in the city of Brixtons to save them from the “chain store power” (Brixton Pounds 2009). Brixton Pound is a paper based & digital currency that was created to run in parallel to the Britsh Pound Sterling. The money circulated and created within the local economy stays within the local economy hence helping to sustain it and protect it from big chain stores. It exposes the underlying idea of economics and capitalism by making people think about where they spend their money and ensuring a commitment to spend a certain porton locally. In a sense fnding representaton for previously unrepresented voices.

(14)

3.3 SOMEWHERE BETWEEN FOR POLITICS AND POLITICAL

Projects that design for politcs and those that are politcal exposing important issues are both neededs but it would be unfair to classify all projects on this polar spectrum of for politcs or politcal design. One such project which could seem to be doing a balancing act of designing for politcs while being politcal is mentoned below.

DECODE Project

DECODE (2017) is a European Commission funded project that is “exploring and pilotng new technologies that give people more control over how they stores manage and use personal data generated online”. While the project is funded by a centrally controlled insttuton it is working on creatng tools for the people to have greater control over their own data. The project is also produced as free and open sourceds thereby allowing anyone to use and appropriate the technology. The project through itself exposes the current conditons of use and control of citzen datas while providing them with tools for greater autonomy.

Figure 3.6 Screen shot from the DECODE project website (DECODE, 2017)

3.3.1 Situating this research

The work of this thesis is situated somewhere between for politcs and the politcal. It aims to increase partcipaton of citzens in governance while designing for a level of autonomy not currently available in democratc practces.

4. METHODS

This thesis follows the research through design methodology in tackling what we can call a wicked problem (Kolkos 2012)s that of understanding how society will evolve and it’s implicatons on governance. As

Zimmermans Stoltermans & Forlizzi (2010) talk about in their paper research through design (RtD) ofers distnct advantages when dealing with complex issuess mainly it “allows researchers to rely on designerly actvites as a way of approaching messy situatons with unclear or even confictng agendas” (p. 310). RtD as a methodology focuses on research for the futures which is the basis of this exploraton and it tends to provide a startng point on discussions for a preferred future. “RtD has the intrinsic ability of bringing many

(15)

ideas together through the process of compositon and integraton which are core actvites in a designerly approach” (p. 317).

In this thesis I use various design methods and tools in the exploraton of a preferred future for governments and citzen partcipaton based on theories from other domains. The thesis provides

documentaton of the design process in how these methods were employed to achieve certain goals in the building and understanding of the knowledge around future of governments hence qualifying it as a research through design project. Some of the design methods used are briefy discussed in the following sectons.

4.1 CO-DESIGN

This thesis started with an explicit goal of placing “value on human capital” (Blauers 2018). Which lead to a design process with a partcipatory mindsets valuing people as co-creators in the design process.

Acknowledging that the people who will be afected by the outcomes of the design are “experts of their environment” (Sanders & Stapperss 2012: p. 24) and then the insights they provided formed the foundaton for building this research on. It is important to note though that a co-design approach was not followed through out the process but mainly in the pre-design and discovery phases of the project. That is due to the tme constraints on this partcular thesis work but in general because in the larger context it is stll ongoing work and further actvites for co-design should be incorporated as the work progresses.

Co-design was done in the pre-design phase through workshops across Europe which are discussed in secton 5.1 & 5.2 and then later a workshop in the discovery phase as discussed in secton 5.3. The workshops in the pre-design phase helped establish the desires of citzens from their future governmentss helping with research and problem defniton. The workshop in the discovery phase was used to translate that research into actonable insights in complement with the theory on agonistc pluralisms in a way ”trying out new roless relatonships and practces that follow with a new design” (Sanders & Stapperss 2012: p. 264) The later phases of the project took on a more speculatve design approach which is discussed in the following secton.

4.2 SPECULATIVE DESIGN

Speculatve design has much in common with other design discourses like critcal designs where speculatve design as a specifc form of critcal design focuses on “socioscientfc and sociotechnical concerns” (Malpasss 2017: p.56). Auger (2013) addresses the semantc diferences between critcal designs design fcton and speculatve design wherein terms like ‘fcton’ imply unrealitys ‘critcal’ implies an intenton to instgate debate or philosophical analysis. “These terms act to dislocate the object from everyday lifes exposing their fctonal or academic status” (p. 12). Speculatve on the other hand aids in shifing the discussion on technology beyond the experts to a larger public audiences hence “the choice of ‘speculatve’ is preferable as it suggests a direct correlaton between ‘here and now’ and existence of the design concept” (p.12). While critcal design is used as an overarching theoretcal themes speculatve design in this context ofers practcal tools to craf speculatons. The following secton discusses the tools that were used for this thesis.

4.2.1 Counterfactuals

Counterfactuals is a kind of a thought experiment where historical facts are changed to then speculate about the future through ‘what might have happened if...’ kind of questons (Dunne & Rabys 2013). Thought

(16)

experiments can be considered to be closer to conceptual art than actual design but what they ofer is a way to break away from our established rigid ways of thinking by placing us in a diferent reality. These trigger thoughts about parallel possibilites hence serving as a creatve exercise in widening the ideas space. This method was employed in a workshop which is discussed in secton 5.2 and provided the research team withs in generals crazy ideas but embodying certain specifc qualites that could actually be a part of the possibility space.

4.2.2 Physical fctions props

Fictonal objects that exist without a story allow for the user to create a story around it beyond the imaginaton of a writer or designer. Physical fctons are such intentonal fctonal objects that “enjoy their status with litle desire to become ‘real’” (Dunne & Rabys 2013: p. 89). Props allow for the imaginaton to have something tangible to work with. While Dunne & Raby tend to favour the aesthetcs of the props as much as their functons during the research I used an Amazon Alexa device as a prop to speculate about governments as voice assistantss which is discussed in secton 6.3.

This technique was employed only briefy to get a feel for such interactons and what implicaton that might have. For future work this type of speculaton with a physical object should contnue incorporatng more characteristcs and functons into the prop to understand nuances of the interacton.

4.2.3 Alternatives

The idea of alternatves runs through the feld of speculatve design. This thesis in itself is a work in designing or thinking about alternatves for future governments. Thinking about alternatves served as a thought experiment throughout the design process as more of an informal tool. Inspired from the Alternate Endings (Linehan et al., 2014) workshop notes I contnuously mentally explored current products and social actons and what their alternatve uses or inverse actons would result in. This way of thinking helped create one of the main concepts discussed later in secton 6.3 where a voice assistant is imagined as the

government at your service.

Alternatves helped expand the possibility space and create a preferred future artefact that could be imagined using current technology with incremental development.

4.3 DESIGN TACTICS

Carl DiSalvo (DiSalvos 2009) talks about design tactcs as “designerly means directed towards the constructon of publics” (p. 52). Design tactcs are more ofen appropriatons of designed products to accommodate purposes beyond what they are originally designed for. In relaton to the formaton of publicss design tactcs relate to “Dewey’s concern for making the conditons and consequences of an issue apparent and known such that a public may form” (p. 52). DiSalvo identfes two design tactcs for such purposess ‘projecton’ and ‘tracing’. Where projectons is the act of making apparent ‘what might be’ in the future. These are not fctons but facts based on the past informaton and making informed extrapolatons into the future. In the use of design for projectons the issue is represented in a captvatng and compelling manner. Tracings on the other hands takes on two meanings one of being an actvity that reveals “the underlying structuress argumentss and assumptons of an issue” and twos “to follow and record the presence and movement of an artefacts events or idea” (p. 55).

(17)

In the designed concepts discussed later in chapter 6s these design tactcs play a large role in enabling the functon of creaton of a public. While the assumpton of projecton is implicit to allow technology to create projectons to inform citzens when they need a certain kind of informaton and consequences of partcular decisionss the idea of tracing is embodied in two partcular concepts flling in the design space where the creaton and movement of an issue is tracked and displayed and where the politcs of infrastructure around a citzen can be accessed using a mobile phone and augmented reality. The concepts appropriate existng technology to perform functons that go beyond their current idea of feeding capitalistc goals.

Suggestng such concepts in a forum of a highly insttutonalised organisaton creates the potental for turning the tactcs into strategies for a preferred future.

4.4 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

The project follows follows the ethical standards discussed in Good Research Practce (Swedish Research Councils 2017). During the workshopss partcipants were informed about the topic and goal of the research. Partcipaton was voluntary and oral consent was taken for the recordings and use of material for research purposes. All partcipants were informed that their contributons would be treated anonymously.

5. DESIGN PROCESS

The project follows a generatve design philosophy using partcipatory workshops to generate a sense of expectatons from the future and literature flling in the gaps with theories and practces about democracy and governance. The following sectons outline the steps followed towards the concepts which in

themselves can serve as guides for policy makers and governments to employ designerly means to plan for the future in a citzen centric way. The process fows from understanding and analysing people’s

expectatons about the future to fnally employing design tools to create concepts that tend towards achieving those expectatons.

5.1 IMAGES OF THE FUTURE

What exists today about the future are the ideas about it in people’s minds and imaginatonss this is what Dator (2002) refers to as the “images of the future”. These images difer for individualss based on their backgroundss situatonss cultures etc. Studying and understanding these images is a step towards designing for a preferable future. I use preliminary fndings from workshops conducted across Europe as part of the projects ‘Future of Government 2030+’ to distl a few images of the future created by the partcipants of those workshops. I choose to use these fndings because they allow me to broaden my scope to regions beyond where I am currently geographically located and because they have clear themes from across the contnent in terms of the expectatons of people.

The reports [personal communicaton] I have consulted include ones from Engage Warsaw4s

MediaLab-Prado Madrid5s eGovLab Stockholm6s Cork County Council & Service rePublic Ireland7s Oesterreich 2035 –

4 Future of Government – Summary of workshop with citzens 10.12.2017: Warsaws Poland 5 Future of Government – workshops MediaLab-Prado 20.01.2018: Madrids Spain

6 [Draf] Future of Government 2030+ - Open Innovaton & Co-creaton Partcipatory Workshop 05.03.2018: Stockholms Sweden 7 [Draf] Future of Government – Cork County Council & Service rePublic Workshop 26.02.2018: Cork Countys Ireland

(18)

Der Staat und Ich - Buerger Workshop Vienna8 and Malta9. These workshops were part of case studies run

by European Commission’s Joint Research Centre through partner organisatons in the respectve cites. Each workshop had from 14 to 35 partcipants from segments of society having a distributon and

representaton in ages ethnicitys genders educatons professions and religion. There was another workshops FuturGov CSO Workshop Brussels10s which included partcipants from “internatonal civil society

organisatonss politcal think tankss trade unions and related stakeholders working in or with interest in the feld of government innovatons open government and partcipatory policy makings creaton and co-decision making”.

These workshops explored partcipants’ percepton of the current state of and expectatons thereafer from government services in the domains of social services educaton and cultures healths law and orders

transportatons and politcs. Most of the workshops followed a similar process and are reported according to a common template making analysis and comparisons easy and accessible.

There are clear trends which get highlighted through the workshops. These are similar with those in the current public discourses like – digitalisaton of servicess data—big data and open datas automaton and privatsaton of services. Technology in general seems to be a major agent of changes which is also in line with what Dator (2002) experienced when he asked contributorss teachers and practtoners in future studies and consultngs to each “spell out their theory of social change” (p. 8).

I will use these reports to highlight the expectatons from the future to create the images we can later build upon to move towards a preferable future. Without going into the specifc domains and their specifc problemss below I highlight fve general expectatons or rather desires of citzens from their governments in the future. Representatonal sketches are shown in fgure 5.1 which served as inspiraton thereafer during the process.

1. Communicatonn There is a desire for citzens to be listened tos as opposed to the present where they feel they do not have a voice and hence lack agency. There is not only an expectaton of greater and more transparent communicaton but also of a two-way dialogues preferably in real tme.

2. Partcipatonn The citzens expect to be more involved in decision making actvitess thereby desiring more control over decisions that afect their lives. But they also seek more inclusive partcipaton from all ages ethnic and class groups in society. Empathy towards others’ needs is also an

expectaton.

3. Technologyn Underlying the desires is an expectaton of development in technology as a fact and therefore an enabler to achieve these desires. While certain developments in technologys like automaton and artfcial intelligence are a cause for worry due to perceived loss in jobss citzens generally accept it as a fact about the future and instead look to it to help them lead beter lives. There is a high positve sentment and trust in technology to make interactons with governments easier. Privacy and surveillance come up as concerns when talking about ubiquitous data collectons but the solutonssuggested are to develop protocols in a way to respect privacy and disallow surveillance. Citzens expect technology and by extension data to work for them and not to control them.

(19)

4. Transparencyn Citzens desire a much higher level of transparency in public life. For example while they see many pitalls in businesses infuencing government decision makings like a trend towards monopolys unfair business practces or violaton of rights for workers and communitess they also see the positve impacts and hence desire greater transparency.

5. Local and distributedn Recent events seem to have caused disillusionment with centralised power. The feeling of not being heard or represented and governments working on issues from far away without having optmal impact has probably lead to a desire for more local governance and distributon of power from the tops down to the people.

Building on the above themess we can string together that citzens generally expect

technology to enable transparency and beter communicatons allowing them to be actve partcipants leading to local and distributed power and governance which would tackle their individual issues.

These images form the foundaton of the work this thesis is built upon using the following steps in the design process.

Figure 5.1 – S etches to represent communicaton, partcipaton, technology, transparency, local and distributed

5.2 COUNTERFACTUAL WORLDS

I was a partcipant in a workshop conducted by the larger research group at Malmö University as part of the work for the projects ‘Future of Government 2030+’. This workshop had the 20 partcipants exploring ‘counterfactual worlds’s a form of thought experiment where a historical fact is changed and partcipants speculate on a world that ‘might have been if...’. Such an approach provides a new outlook for future-based thinking by using these fctonal parallel worlds (Dunne & Rabys 2013).

Each of the fve teams were asked to imagine how governance and decision making would work in their respectve fctonal scenario of a counterfactual world. Startng from the given scenarios the teams picked up on specifc characteristcs of their worlds — one being a kingdom with central controls another where 40 was the minimum age for sufrages third where change is a constants fourth which was based on animistc philosophiess and fnally one more artstcally driven and where decisions were never mad but things happened organically.

(20)

Most of the worlds progressed towards a way of life with greater citzen partcipatons for example the world where change was a constant (Figure 5.2a) had its citzens spend a lot of tme in the afairs of governance and decision making. In this world issues were like tornadoss slowly gaining momentum and would be acted upon if they grew into a big enough size. Issues that did not grow would organically dissipate.

Figure 5.2 – Top-Lef (a) Conterfactual world with constant change; Top-Right (b) Counterfactual world with 40 as minimum votng age; Botom-Lef (c) Counterfactual world that started as a ingdom

In the world with 40 as the age for votng privileges (Figure 5.2b)s it assumed the presence of higher consciousness as a pre-requisite for sufrage and hence the society progressed to have high consciousness at earlier ages. This society would then have a core group that would be fed opinions by the larger

populaton through a tree of consciousness and decisions would be made considering all the diferent viewpoints.

The world that started out as a kingdom with central control (Figure 5.2c) was transformed into a more distributed system of governance with local nodes communicatng directly and learning from each other while performing local governance functons. In this worlds it was suggested that the local node

governments exchange locatons from tme to tme to maintain transparencys contnued learning and growth.

This workshop served as inspiraton with many diferent models of governance and decision making

(21)

organising systems as opposed to central control and decision making. There was a hint of direct partcipaton based on individual issues. Characteristcs from the world represented in fgure 5.2a fnd presence in the concept of Home Assistant (secton 6.3) about how issues could slowly grow and could be considered afer a mass of interest in them.

5.3 AGONISM AND DECISION MAKING

Drawing from the images of future and the counterfactual worlds workshop I picked out two themes to explore further. Ones that citzens want their views to be heard and respected. Twos that they wish to be included in issues that concern thems even bring to light issues that concern them to be considered by their governments. These two align with the theory around agonistc democracy by Moufe (2009) and the idea of publics by Dewey (1927).

While agonism seems like an ideal to strive towards there has not been much exploratons about how it could work in practce. As elaborated earlier in secton 2.2s Westphal (2014) discusses how agonistc democracy could be insttutonalised. I designed a workshop to observe how some of these might look in practce.

The goal of the workshop was to try out a new practce or beter yet a new protocol for tackling issues. These issues usually do not have a straightorward soluton. These could be equated to wicked problemss which are social or cultural problems that are difcult or even impossible to solve for many reasons some of which maybe the number of people and opinions involveds the interconnected nature of such problemss incomplete or contradictory knowledge etc. (Kolkos 2012). The new protocol to try was whether the principles of agonism could be used to mitgate simple issues described in the sample scenarios. The principles of agonism which were explained to the partcipants at the start were:

1. The aim is not to reach consensus but to have all your viewpoints represented in the gathering 2. You are not to atempt to change another’s viewpoints but instead accept it as their truth and

respect their right to defend it

3. You are not to atack a partcipant just because you do not accept their viewpoint 4. Each of your personal agendas are non-negotable to the maximum extent possible

5. The tools you have are compromises temporary alliances and the knowledge of a contnuous state of change

The workshop had six partcipants between the ages 20-40. They were chosen based on their availability and their backgrounds. There were two practcing landscape architects and plannerss one working with strategy and planning with the city of Malmö in the domain of sports and recreatons three design students of which one is involved with role playing games and building with technologys another working with content recommender algorithms for websites and the third who is working in the domain of technology educaton for adults.

The workshop comprised of two parts a design game and refecton.

5.3.1 Scenario oriented design game

An exploratory design game (Brandts 2006) was created where partcipants were given scenarios and each had a role to play in that scenarios either with extra informaton that no one else had or as a citzen with

(22)

specifc issues/background. There were three scenarios which are atached as Appendix I along with an explanaton about the gameplay. The rules changed a bit between three scenarioss but they were generally citzens of a city which would be afected by a change as explained in the scenario and as citzen

representatves were asked to play their part in defending the extra informaton only they knew. One of the scenarios and each citzens extra informaton is shown in fgure 5.3. As the game play progress in rounds partcipants moved their positons on the game boards which were recorded as shown in fgure 5.4.

Figure 5.3 – Scenario with the main descripton at the top and 6 pieces of secret informaton distributed to each of the 6 partcipants.

5.3.2 Participants’ self-refection on required tools and their level of abstraction

Afer the three scenarios partcipants were asked to individually write down tools that would help them have a fruitul partcipaton is such deliberatons. Each then explained what they had writen and placed it on a map of concentric circles where the centre is the kind of informaton closest to them and as one moves further away there can be layers of delegaton and abstractons fgure 5.5. Some of the tools/informaton highlighted by partcipants as needs were: expert opinionss stakeholders involveds the budgets contact informaton about project responsibless plans for infrastructures minority group representatonss procurement dealss ease of access of informatons clarity and simplicity of informaton.

(23)

Figure 5.4 (L-R) – (a) The game board with concentric circles representng a spectrum from the centre implying a hard yes to the outsides of the circle implying a hard no; (b) Final positons and movements of the partcipants for the scenario in fgure 5.3

When asked how they would handle so much informatons they suggested abstracton of it through think tankss research organisatonss and universites that they could trust. On the queston of how they trust one over the others the answers were that trust is high when:

• All consequences and points of view are shown • Economic motves are clear

• Complexity is addressed

• Presented in an easy to understand way

• Accessibility of outcomes and sources is clear and easy • Ideology is clearly represented

5.3.3 Insights and conclusions

The workshop demonstrated important aspects of decision making with an agonistc mindsets the role informaton played during the process and the tools that might be needed for such actvites. On the whole partcipants stuck to their selfsh motvatons and were guided by principles of trusts and ratonality

thereafer. Usually the subject of discussion was the common ground they all had and if the discussions were focused on the subject without atacking personal views the group would tend towards some sort of agreement. In the case a minority was singled out the dynamics would quickly move away from the subject and atack the conditons. At such points reminding them about the principles and showing how they were now atacking a certain viewpoint usually brought them back to discussing the subject. Some of the actonable insights are tabled below.

(24)

Figure 5.5 – Placement of informaton and tools that citizens would need to partcipate in such deliberatons

Table 5.1 – Actonable insights from the wor shop

Insights Actons

Disagreements didn’t cause people to take a polar opposite stands but rather only micro-movements on a spectrum between yes and no

1. Explore how nuances in opinions can be captured

2. Explore how varying viewpoints can be captured

Visualisaton of movements was a strong indicator of the group’s directon and sensitsed them towards others’ viewpoints

Explore how the visualisaton of movements can be captured and made accessible

Informaton was useful to resolve deadlocks Explore the availability and presentaton of informaton

Stories created empathy Explore how stories could be incorporated at a city

(25)

5.4 ALTERNATIVE PRESENTn APPLYING DSEIGN TACTICS

In my work I chose to try and build a bridge between the present and the futures taking inspiraton from the evolutonary nature of biology and that of technologys following Mannermaa’s (1991) evolutonary

paradigm and it’s postulate (4)s “the development of societal systems is leading towards ever-increasing complexity of societes and towards the growth of dynamicity of these systems in the sense of increased and more rapid fows of informatons energy and material” (p. 359).

One of the insights about the expectatons from the futures which are really the unfulflled desires of the presents is that citzens wish for their governments to listen to them. Following this one should wonders where and what are the citzens saying something for the governments to listen to them. In the present context citzen groups organise in ralliess create pettons at change.org or physically write to the

governmentss and the media writes op-eds to name a few. These methods have a slow uptake and depend on the critcal mass a mater of concern is able to creates but are not a guarantee that the issues will be taken up. Citzen also have an opportunity every once in 4 or 5 years to exercise their voice through a votes which is making polar choices. This is also contrary to the fnding about viewpoints from the last workshops where nuances in viewpoints showed promise in being more inclusive for fnal outcomes.

Then I sought to explore how else could citzens have a voice? For this I turned to current technologies and to the spaces that citzens already inhabit.

5.4.1 The Instagram Experiment

‘Stories’ is a feature on the social networking platorms like Instagram (“Instagram Blogs” 2016)s Snapchat (“Snapchat Storiess” n.d.)s Facebook (“Facebook Storiess” n.d.) that allow users to share instant multmedia creatons using their mobile phoness these could include photoss videoss GIFs and texts locatons and hashtags and are visible for 24 hours on a users profle. An interestng feature on Instagram and Snapchat is that the platorm collates stories for cites and allows even non-followers of a user to discover those using a public city story. I chose this feature to run a quick experiments asking people to engage through stories by sharing issues in the city that they think need atenton. Figure 5.6 shows the stories I ran within my social circle and to be picked up by the city story. Figure 5.7 shows some of the responses I received.

5.4.1.1 Insights and conclusions

This wasn’t a very successful experiment in the sense of engaging a mass of people. That could be atributed to the context of use of Instagram Storiess which in its current form is used mostly to show-of ones life to others and the tme spent viewing a city story which is just about a second. Since these are social platorms with a certain expectaton atached to thems users mostly post images and videos etc. which are relevant to their own social circle.

But there is something in the style of engagement and imagery used in the few responses that were

received and it demonstrates a potental channel of communicaton. In a diferent context this could lead to a strategy (DiSalvos 2009) of public engagement to visualise public sentment for specifc kinds of issues and could lead to formaton of publics by “making the conditons and consequences of an issue apparent and known” (p. 52).

(26)

Figure 5.6 – Instagram stories solicitng partcipaton

(27)

5.4.2 The Home Voice Assistant Experiment

A commercial device that is gaining momentum is home voice assistants. While voice assistants on phones have been there for many yearss standalone devices that sit in people’s homes and act as voice assistants for all members of the household have been gaining in popularity in the last few yearss with companies like Google and Amazon providing a range of products in this domain. A voice assistant is a device that

essentally performs the functon of listenings it can then respond using voice and recentlys also through an atached screen. The present use case for such devices has been to inform one about the weathers playing musics managing a calendars managing shopping listss and fetching informaton from the internet through connected websites like Wikipedia.

Taking inspiraton from Dunne and Raby’s Placebo Project (Dunne & Rabys 2001) I tried to explore the experience of having easy access to one’s local government through a voice assistant. I borrowed an Amazon Alexa and placed it in a volunteer’s kitchen. I asked her to imagine it as her local city council at her beck and call. Everytme she needed an answer to a queston or wanted to raise an issue or just ofer an anecdote she was to say the word “Computer”s the device’s wake up word and then go on to say what she wanted to. I informed her the device may respond by saying it does not have an answer to her questons but she should take it as the device working to learn more about the kind of answers it should have. While this wasn’t ideal and a response and efect of interactons plays a big roles this helped in understanding what such a relatonship might feel like.

Some of the questons she asked were: • What’s happening in Sweden? • When is the next Swedish electon?

• What’s the politcal agenda of the lef party in Sweden? • I wish that my landlord would change my windows • The buses are always late

• I couldn’t take Malmö by bike to Rosengård today because they don’t have a terminal theres that is very strange

More questons are placed in Appendix II.

5.4.2.1 Insights and conclusions

One of the frst observatons about her experiences with the device the volunteer made was to ask if it was the government “always listening?!”. Beyond that the volunteer had a somewhat interestng experience wherein she did not want to engage with the device because of its futlity but spoke to it nonetheless. The questons start out with those seeking informaton to then making complaints and then ofering anecdotes from lived experiences which border on being complaints but with more politcal intentons. During a very short period the partcipant was warming up to the idea of an easy communicaton channel with the city government. The ease of use she felt was great and she would be able to engage a lot more if it was useful with the informaton or engagement. She was also very concerned about her privacy while having the device in her kitchen.

The current use cases for voice assistants are for trivial tasks. They claim to make our lives beter by making lists and searching the internet through a voice based interacton. This was novel maybe a decade ago and

(28)

the use cases for such technology don’t seem to have progressed too far. This could be because in a commercial context such services make sense only when they allow to bring in more sales and that is what these devices can do well. The technology is getng beters it is maybe the lack of intenton that is keeping it chained in its use cases.

Note: As I write this thesis Google demo-ed (Google I/Os 2018) their voice assistant making natural voice and language phone call to reserve a table at a restaurant and book a hair cutng appointments in essence deceiving the service provider to believe it was speaking to a human being. This is an example of the speed of development in this technology and also a call to deliberate on its ethical implicatons.

5.5 TRENDSn COLLECTIVE ACTION AND EXPECTED TECHNOLOGIES

This secton focuses on some of the recent trends in technology development and wide scale adopton of products in those domains. In essence here I try to fll in the possibility space around the preferred future of government using current technology.

A quick note on Collectie acton

Collectve acton is where a group comes together around an issue and acts. As the size of a group grows collectve acton becomes intrinsically difcult due to problems in ‘organising’. Traditonally humans have set up ‘organisatons’ to do the ‘organising’ of groups to achieve collectve acton. But there are always

overheads in terms of tmes atenton and money that are required when running an organisaton and maintaining structure. In such formal organisatonss for any planned acton if the value from the acton is lower than the cost of running the organisatons then those actons are unlikely to be pursued. This is where technological developments play a parts by “lowering the costs of coordinatng group acton”((Shirkys 2008: p. 31). This allows for certain actvites to be pursued which would have been ignored in a traditonal organisaton due to the high costs of organising. While it is not in the scope of this research to explain and explore these technologies in detailss some of them that could help with governance in the future are briefy discussed below.

5.5.1 Open Data

Generally speaking open data is defned as “data that can be freely useds modifeds and shared by anyone for any purpose (subjects at mosts to requirements that preserve provenance and openness)” (Open Knowledge Internatonals 2018). The EU’s own Open Data Portal (2012) provides access to data free of charge from an “expanding range of data from European Union (EU) insttutons and other EU bodies” with an aim to “put them (data) to innovatve use” and increase transparency. The available data concerns topics likes “geographics geopolitcal and fnancial datas statstcss electon resultss legal actss data on crimes healths the environments transport and scientfc research”.

Access to data and its ease of use is only increasing with tme. With open data the powers to some extents is transferred to the public who can access and use it. A large number of civil society organisatons are startng to use and apply insights from such open data sets. Websites like Our World in Data11 (n.d.) are using data

and providing open sourced visualisatons for the larger use by the public. The website is licensed under the ‘Creatve Commons Atributon-ShareAlike 4.0 Internatonal’ licence which allows one to copys redistributes remixs transform and build upon the material for any purposes.

(29)

Open data and in extension open knowledge are tools that aid collectve acton. They fll the informaton and knowledge gap that is usually cited by citzens and governments alike. The use of such tools is stll in a very nascent stage but is growing with tme. Ubiquitous accessibility and the ease of understanding such large sets of data is one of the challenges for design to solve in the future of governments.

5.5.2 Artifcial Intelligence (AI)

Artfcial intelligence is the development of computers to be able to do tasks that usually require human intelligence. Developments in artfcial intelligence have been powered by machine learning which is an area of study that involves training computers to learn to perform tasks based on examples. Various diferent machine learning techniques diferentate how computers learn and have implicatons on the development of artfcial intelligence.

Current capabilites of AI systems includes fast informaton search and processings data analysiss patern recognitons computer vision – visual classifcaton and object classifcatons natural language processing (NLP) and natural language understanding (NLU). These broadly fall into three categories of robotcs and cognitve automatons cognitve insightss and cognitve engagement (Davenport & Ronankis 2018) in order of development progress.

Developments in AI have been going on for decades but what makes it more relevant now is its recent pace of advancement. At the recent Google I/O 2018 developer conference (Google I/Os 2018)s CEO Sundar Pichai’s keynote was dedicated to narratng the advancements in AI technology and it’s capabilites. They demonstrated the Google voice assistant’s new natural language conversatonal abilites and the future for more natural sounding voice and speech. Last month European Commission outlined a ‘European approach to boost investment and set ethical guidelines’ (European Commissions 2018) for artfcial intelligences calling it ‘one of the most strategic technologies of the 21st century’. Artfcial intelligence is as much a

reality in our lives as much as maybe computers themselves were in the 1980s.

5.5.3 Blockchain

Blockchain is a “public ledger of informaton collected through a network that sits on top of the internet” (Lisk Academys 2018). It is the way that such informaton is recorded that makes blockchain unique.

Traditonal databases also known as Relatonal database management systems (RDBMS) store data in tables and primarily use the SQL (sequental query language)s they are essentally centralised (locateds stored and maintained in a single locaton). Blockchain is a type of a distributed database management system

(DDBMS) which store data across a network. They use “consensus mechanisms for fault-tolerant

communicatons and ensure concurrency control through locking and tme-stamp mechanisms”. Blockchain is a special kind of DDBMS called distributed leadger (DL) that employs cryptography to provide

“decentralised mult-version concurrency control mechnism and to maintain consensus about the existence and status of shared facts in trustless environments” (Meuniers 2016). There are multple types of

distributed ledgers and the exact defniton of blockchain is debatable and are discussed in this artcle by Colin Plat (2017).

Blockchain as a technology has potental to change the digital world as we know it. It brings in value through its securitys distributed and decentralised natures privacys transparency and integritys and in efect trust. Blockchain is a trustless system in the sense that it does not require trust between two transactng partes to complete a transacton. Blockchains “require social and politcal relatonships where the control of trust is displaced from insttutonal producton and recording to computatonal producton and

Figure

Figure 2.2 Possible, probable, and preferable futures as subsets of possibility space (Candy, 2010: p
Figure 3.1 – Screen shot from the Policy Lab website (Policy Lab UK, n.d.)
Figure 3.3 Screen shots from Museum of Future government exhibitons (2017 & 2015) (The Museum Of The  Future, n.d.)
Figure 3.4 Screen shot from Million Dollar Bloc s project (Krugan et al., 2006)
+7

References

Related documents

Therefore I think that the possible increase in the number of people trying or using narcotics once or a few times in their lives is not a real cost of a legalization, because

The compilation strategy is defined inductively (Fig. 7); the compilation of expressions, denoted C JeK destiny , takes an expression e and a meta-variable destiny which holds

TRITA: TRITA-ABE-MBT-20732.. I detta examensarbete görs en omfattande analys med hjälp av kvalitativa och kvantitativa metoder för att undersöka ifall användandet av LocalLife

The other 47,5 percent of respondents who thought that Facebook's popularity has begun to diminish, do think the future has other services coming up that will smash the mighty

Buffer Zone Aside, close or picking zone  IKEA: Aside in Dortmund and IKEA DC in Torsvik, close at higher level in the automated cranes in IKEA CDC and pick zone buffer at ground

The keywords used when describing the tasks of the operator of the future were: interpretation, system control, communication, analysis, adjustments, cooperation,

If such an Arctic Ocean Treaty is not possible, an extension of the Arc- tic Council with non-Arctic countries as full members instead of observers should be considered.. At the

Under the Aktiengesetz (German Stock Corporation Act), the dividends distributable to the shareholders are based solely on Continental AG’s net retained earnings, which amounted