co-design callouts 3
Lively and Lifeliving
"Lively and Lifeliving" is about co-design as a real-time experience with the people living these lives. It's a real-life purpose. In co-design, we get to "live in new roles," as emphasized by Adrienne Maree Brown. During the pandemic, Brown's contention that "breathing is a shared resource" rang true (Brown, 2021).
We often ask ourselves the 'why questions': why are we here? Why us? Adrienne Maree Brown encourages us to explore what excites and enlivens us.
I like to think of Lively Co-design as real, present, and feeling democratic, with a genuine sense of stakeholding, rather than the lifeless feeling of tick-boxing stakeholder representation.
This means embracing the real, including discomfort and potential conflict. As KA McKercher advises, co-design isn't smooth sailing – conflict and confrontation will happen. There's no pre-established map; we make it together (McKercher, K. A. 2020).
As a side note, "The map is not the territory," a phrase coined by Alfred Korzybski, reminds us that models of reality are distinct from reality itself, a concept frequently referenced by Nora Bateson (Bateson, N., Circles).
Group awareness is key, along with responsive facilitation (Coullomb, P., & Collingwood-Boots, C. 2017). A commitment to becoming and adapting to the group's pace is essential.
Fred Moten suggests that collaboration is not about individuals "finishing themselves." It's about becoming something else, beyond individual or common ideas, without prioritizing ideas over the people holding them (Harney, S., & Moten, F. 2013).
Adrienne Maree Brown references the wisdom of Lao Tzu: "If you do not trust the people, they will become untrustworthy" (Brown, A. M. 2017).
Community co-design acknowledges that individual projects and people can disappear, lacking the advantages of collective action. To reach its potential, this movement must become permanent and effect systemic change, resonating at a deep cultural level (Abendroth, L. M., & Bell, B. 2016).
References:
Abendroth, L. M., & Bell, B. (Eds.). (2016). Public interest design practice guidebook: Seed methodology, case studies, and critical issues. Routledge.
Brown, A. M. (2017). Emergent strategy: Shaping change, changing worlds. AK Press.
Brown, A. M. (2021). Holding change: The way of emergent strategy facilitation and mediation. AK Press.
Coullomb, P., & Collingwood-Boots, C. (2017). Collaboration by Design. Openfield Institute.
Downe, L. (2020). Good services: How to design services that work. 1st ed. London: Publications, Transworld.
Facer, K., & Enright, B. (2016). Creating living knowledge: The connected communities programme, community-university relationships and the participatory turn in the production of knowledge.
McKercher, K. A. (2020). Beyond sticky notes. Doing co-design for Real: Mindsets, Methods, and Movements, 1st Edn. Sydney, NSW: Beyond Sticky Notes.
Harney, S., & Moten, F. (2013). The undercommons: Fugitive planning & black study. Minor Compositions.
Bateson, N. (2016) Small Arcs of Larger Circles: Framing through other patterns. Triachy Press.
Westoby, P., Palmer, D., & Lathouras, A. (2020). 40 Critical Thinkers in Community Development. Practical Action Publishing.
