27d8334352ef95ca62653708c4107b4d
Metadata
Highlights
- It was obvious—and this was shared by
many colleagues and students—the vast
majority of people made do with these
designed technological, material infra-
structures. In fact, much of their lives
were spent navigating through, around,
and in spite of the constant constraints
and roadblocks that these infrastruc-
tures and their associated social sys-
tems imposed. (View Highlight)
- In short, he raises an extremely im-
portant political and ethical question
that all technologists should think
deeply about when they next sit down
inside air-conditioned offices, at well cu-
rated and equipped desk spaces, to de-
sign for people whose lives they not only
know nothing about but cannot compre-
hend given the privileges of their own
lived experiences. Should an extremely
privileged minority be designing for the
needs of an underprivileged majority? (View Highlight)
- Time, for the Nuer, is not a discrete
succession of states nor lived duration.
It is social, interior to the life of the com-
munity rather than exterior to it. This
conceptualization of time as measured
through the lifeworld of the community
is also something particular to the Nuer
in relation to how they live and survive.
What it shows us, as do countless other
examples of pre-modern communities
in the annals of anthropological docu-
mentation, is other ways of seeing, act-
ing, and being in the world can, have,
and do exist. (View Highlight)
- “gender,” “class,”
etc.) are universal. (View Highlight)
- . For example,
the idea that fundamental concepts,
categories, and binaries like “nature”
and “culture” exist across all cultures,
or concepts that are commonly taken
for granted in constructing modern
identities (“race,” “gender,” “class,”
etc.) are universal. In fact, the onto-
logical turn in anthropology shows us
precisely that these taken-for-granted
categories and definitions, i.e. ontolo-
gies, are local and specific to commu-
nities and time periods. They are often
fluid and protean, subject to change,
often through political contestation
and struggle. And they are often multi-
valent, having different inflections and
senses depending on h (View Highlight)
- these taken-for-granted
categories and definitions, i.e. ontolo-
gies, are local and specific to commu-
nities and time periods. They are often
fluid and protean, subject to change,
often through political contestation
and struggle. And they are often multi-
valent, having different inflections and
senses depending on how and why they
are being used. (View Highlight)
- Strathern, in
her text Relation, argues we reflect on
the fact that whenever we construct
knowledge around an unfamiliar Other,
we make what is local and familiar to
them familiar to us through a process
of reduction by passing what is observed
through our own concepts of the world,
in what amounts to a “globalization” of
knowledge [6]. T (View Highlight)
- One of the key questions that a deco-
lonial approach to design would there-
fore raise is: What does it mean to design
for people who are not like us, even be-
fore we ask whether we should design for
people who are not like us? What does it
mean to design for people who have dif-
ferent histories, different backgrounds,
and different commitments from us?
What does it mean to design for people
who might relate to the world differently
from the way we do? (View Highlight)
- ugh a process
of reduction by passing what is observed
through our own concepts of the world,
in what amounts to a “globalization” of
knowledge [6]. This reduction is what
makes what would otherwise be strange
and irrational, impossible for us to in-
ternalize, something that we can under-
stand and internalize. (View Highlight)
- Ontologies are, in short, cosmo-
logically specific—and here I use the
word cosmology instead of culture to
denote that what we are talking about
are large constellations of ontologies
that structure the ways in which hu-
man communities make sense of the
cosmos they exist in. They are cosmo-
ontologies. (View Highlight)
- Thus I would argue the decoloni-
zation of the knowledge systems that
designers rely upon must start from a
proper appraisal of difference. Not just
difference in a shallow sense, where we
assume people around the world simply
use different words and languages to de-
scribe the same concepts and the same
realities.
Instead, I would argue we
must think of difference as something
deeper and much more fundamental—
something indicative of the incredibly
different realities that p (View Highlight)
- Thus I would argue the decoloni-
zation of the knowledge systems that
designers rely upon must start from a
proper appraisal of difference. Not just
difference in a shallow sense, where we
assume people around the world simply
use different words and languages to de-
scribe the same concepts and the same
realities.
Instead, I would argue we
must think of difference as something
deeper and much more fundamental—
something indicative of the incredibly
different realities that people inhabit
and relate to. Difference—and I would
argue, especially the difference between
different cultures, civilizations, com-
munities, and collectives of people who
have developed along their own trajec-
tories through time—is ontological. It is
deeply tied to the ways, the categories,
through which we make sense of our-
selves and our identities. (View Highlight)
- anthropologist
Evans-Pritchard described how the
Nuer of Sudan construct their concept
of something as fundamental as time:
“In the middle of September Nuer turn,
as it were, towards the life of fishing and
cattle camps and feel that village resi-
dence and horticulture lie behind them.
They begin to speak of camps as though
they were already in being, and long to
be on the move. This restlessness is even
more marked towards the end of the
drought when, noting cloudy skies, peo-
ple turn towards the life of villages and
make preparations for striking camp…
the concept of seasons is derived from
social activities rather than from the cli-
matic changes which determine them,
and a ‘year’ is to Nuer a period of village
residence (cieng) and a period of camp
residence (wec)” (View Highlight)
- o uncover how soci-
eties that have lived more sustainably
through their own everyday lives would
be invaluable (View Highlight)
- Second, an overturning of perspec-
tive is possible. It comes from seeing
our own knowledge and perspective as
local in its own sense, and therefore,
open to globalization within another’s
worldview. This means we should be
aware that the concepts we hold to be
very familiar and “natural” can them-
selves be subject to other interpreta-
tions and consequently,
reductions,
when viewed from the perspective of
a cosmological or cultural Other (View Highlight)
27d8334352ef95ca62653708c4107b4d
Metadata
Highlights
- It was obvious—and this was shared by
many colleagues and students—the vast
majority of people made do with these
designed technological, material infra-
structures. In fact, much of their lives
were spent navigating through, around,
and in spite of the constant constraints
and roadblocks that these infrastruc-
tures and their associated social sys-
tems imposed. (View Highlight)
- In short, he raises an extremely im-
portant political and ethical question
that all technologists should think
deeply about when they next sit down
inside air-conditioned offices, at well cu-
rated and equipped desk spaces, to de-
sign for people whose lives they not only
know nothing about but cannot compre-
hend given the privileges of their own
lived experiences. Should an extremely
privileged minority be designing for the
needs of an underprivileged majority? (View Highlight)
- Time, for the Nuer, is not a discrete
succession of states nor lived duration.
It is social, interior to the life of the com-
munity rather than exterior to it. This
conceptualization of time as measured
through the lifeworld of the community
is also something particular to the Nuer
in relation to how they live and survive.
What it shows us, as do countless other
examples of pre-modern communities
in the annals of anthropological docu-
mentation, is other ways of seeing, act-
ing, and being in the world can, have,
and do exist. (View Highlight)
- “gender,” “class,”
etc.) are universal. (View Highlight)
- . For example,
the idea that fundamental concepts,
categories, and binaries like “nature”
and “culture” exist across all cultures,
or concepts that are commonly taken
for granted in constructing modern
identities (“race,” “gender,” “class,”
etc.) are universal. In fact, the onto-
logical turn in anthropology shows us
precisely that these taken-for-granted
categories and definitions, i.e. ontolo-
gies, are local and specific to commu-
nities and time periods. They are often
fluid and protean, subject to change,
often through political contestation
and struggle. And they are often multi-
valent, having different inflections and
senses depending on h (View Highlight)
- these taken-for-granted
categories and definitions, i.e. ontolo-
gies, are local and specific to commu-
nities and time periods. They are often
fluid and protean, subject to change,
often through political contestation
and struggle. And they are often multi-
valent, having different inflections and
senses depending on how and why they
are being used. (View Highlight)
- Strathern, in
her text Relation, argues we reflect on
the fact that whenever we construct
knowledge around an unfamiliar Other,
we make what is local and familiar to
them familiar to us through a process
of reduction by passing what is observed
through our own concepts of the world,
in what amounts to a “globalization” of
knowledge [6]. T (View Highlight)
- One of the key questions that a deco-
lonial approach to design would there-
fore raise is: What does it mean to design
for people who are not like us, even be-
fore we ask whether we should design for
people who are not like us? What does it
mean to design for people who have dif-
ferent histories, different backgrounds,
and different commitments from us?
What does it mean to design for people
who might relate to the world differently
from the way we do? (View Highlight)
- ugh a process
of reduction by passing what is observed
through our own concepts of the world,
in what amounts to a “globalization” of
knowledge [6]. This reduction is what
makes what would otherwise be strange
and irrational, impossible for us to in-
ternalize, something that we can under-
stand and internalize. (View Highlight)
- Ontologies are, in short, cosmo-
logically specific—and here I use the
word cosmology instead of culture to
denote that what we are talking about
are large constellations of ontologies
that structure the ways in which hu-
man communities make sense of the
cosmos they exist in. They are cosmo-
ontologies. (View Highlight)
- Thus I would argue the decoloni-
zation of the knowledge systems that
designers rely upon must start from a
proper appraisal of difference. Not just
difference in a shallow sense, where we
assume people around the world simply
use different words and languages to de-
scribe the same concepts and the same
realities.
Instead, I would argue we
must think of difference as something
deeper and much more fundamental—
something indicative of the incredibly
different realities that p (View Highlight)
- Thus I would argue the decoloni-
zation of the knowledge systems that
designers rely upon must start from a
proper appraisal of difference. Not just
difference in a shallow sense, where we
assume people around the world simply
use different words and languages to de-
scribe the same concepts and the same
realities.
Instead, I would argue we
must think of difference as something
deeper and much more fundamental—
something indicative of the incredibly
different realities that people inhabit
and relate to. Difference—and I would
argue, especially the difference between
different cultures, civilizations, com-
munities, and collectives of people who
have developed along their own trajec-
tories through time—is ontological. It is
deeply tied to the ways, the categories,
through which we make sense of our-
selves and our identities. (View Highlight)
- anthropologist
Evans-Pritchard described how the
Nuer of Sudan construct their concept
of something as fundamental as time:
“In the middle of September Nuer turn,
as it were, towards the life of fishing and
cattle camps and feel that village resi-
dence and horticulture lie behind them.
They begin to speak of camps as though
they were already in being, and long to
be on the move. This restlessness is even
more marked towards the end of the
drought when, noting cloudy skies, peo-
ple turn towards the life of villages and
make preparations for striking camp…
the concept of seasons is derived from
social activities rather than from the cli-
matic changes which determine them,
and a ‘year’ is to Nuer a period of village
residence (cieng) and a period of camp
residence (wec)” (View Highlight)
- o uncover how soci-
eties that have lived more sustainably
through their own everyday lives would
be invaluable (View Highlight)
- Second, an overturning of perspec-
tive is possible. It comes from seeing
our own knowledge and perspective as
local in its own sense, and therefore,
open to globalization within another’s
worldview. This means we should be
aware that the concepts we hold to be
very familiar and “natural” can them-
selves be subject to other interpreta-
tions and consequently,
reductions,
when viewed from the perspective of
a cosmological or cultural Other (View Highlight)