5240

5240 builds on 4240 by focusing on the post-graduation possibilities for implementing social change at scale. In contrast to the 4240 syllabus, it focuses more on organization strategies and how they interact with public good questions. This means that in parallel with the work in the undergraduate version of the class, which aims to sharpen individual understanding of design strategies, graduate students will also be imagining organizational and entrepreneureal models of how to execute designs.

Readings:

These readings are to be done in addition to the readings on the Schedule page.

Module 1:

• Srnicek: Platform Capitalism Intro-Chap 1

Module 2:

• Srnicek: Platform Capitalism Chap 2-3

Module 3:

• Hess Technology- and Product- Oriented Movements.
• Scholz Platform Cooperativism: Challenging the Corporate Sharing Economy.

Additional Material:

• von Hippel Democratizing Innovation

Module 4:

• Costanza-Chock 2020. Design justice: community-led practices to build the worlds we need. Design Sites chapter.
• Rey-Mazón et al. Public Lab: Community-Based Approaches to Urban and Environmental Health and Justice.

Module 5:

• Dunbar-Hester ‘Glamorous Factories of Unpredictable Freedom’: Care, Coalition, and Hacking Hacking.

Assignments

Based on these readings, graduate students will be asked to submit, in addition to each design workbook assignment required of the undergraduates, an additional workbook sketch (one more than the undergrads submit) describing a) a design related to a 5000-level reading and b) a hypothetical individual, group, or orgainzation which made that design.

This 5240 workbook sketch will be two related pages, one each for a) the design and b) the entity that creates that design, based on the constraints in the section below. Think about the relationship between designs you know and the organizations that make them: search/Google, environmental protest/EarthFirst!, cars/Ford, K-pop/BlackPink, racial justice/BLM, etc. Start with thinking about either the particular design, or an organization (see constraints below), and then reverse-engineering the other. This may take several iterative passes until you feel you have a good match, but remember as always that to succeed in a workbook assignment: iterating helps, and you also have to show a mastery of the readings.

Unlike the other workbook entries, neither half of the 5240 workbook entries have to be speculative. On the other hand, they should be novel; don’t make OLPC. Try to dig into the Social Impact side of things – the product should be changing society, not just putting a bandaid on it, or helping in a narrow way a disadvantaged group. Try to get to a core, systemic change that would actually rebalance aspects of society. Not easy! And don’t forget nuance: we are still hoping that you will recognize potential pitfalls of your design, or myopia of your organization.

Per-module constraints on type of organization

Here are the organizational constraints required for each module’s single design workbook:

• DW1: An individual approach: What’s something that would create a social impact which you desire that you could realistically achieve in the 1-2 year range, starting from the skills that you have now? Please note that for this workbook sketch only, you can use any reading from Module 1, not just the 5240 reading.

• DW2: A startup / private company approach: What’s a scrappy for-profit tech company that you could imagine starting, that would be capable of 10x annual growth, but would still be making a positive social impact?

• DW3: A F/LOSS or platform cooperative approach: Following the organizational models that Hess and Scholz describe of cooperatives, T+P-OMs, and free/libre approaches, what could you imagine making?

• DW4: A Design Justice Network approach: What designs for social justice do you think would be best articulated through a Design Justice approach?

• DW5: Propose a new approach: Invent a new type of organization to create a specific technology for social impact. This is the only response of the entire course that does not need to refer to a specific reading, but ideally you will cite various other sources to ground your proposal.

The final will also include an extra essay question on organization, allowing students to demonstrate their ability to synthesize their knowledge.

Readings will be due along with

Additional Graduate Level Learning Outcomes:

In addition to the learning objectives outlined on this page, the 5240 version of the course aims to achieve these learning outcomes:

• Name and describe a range of organizational structures and approaches
• Match organizational structures with their capabilities for executing different aspects and scales of social change
• Identify which designs and organizational structures are compatible or complementary with different technology designs
• Creatively imagine new organizational structures for designing social change

5000-level Texts