Design and Ethics: Reflections on Practice

This book is an multi disciplinary approach to design thinking across the fields of Architecture, Communication Design, Fashion, Graphic Design, Urban Design and Philosophy.

Framing perspectives on design and ethics

This chapter discusses design thinking and design as a process which spans all spheres of everyday life.

Eat, drink and be civil : sociability and the cafe

The article investigates the ascendency of the cafe in the current period of urbanism. I suggest that “going for a coffee” is less about coffee and more about how we connect with others in a mobile world, when flexible work hours are increasingly the norm and more people are living alone than any other period in history. The café also plays a role in the development of civil discourse and civility, and plays an important role in the development of cosmopolitan civil societies.

The drift

In this video, text floats on screen amidst a field of swirling coloured orbs and a stock music soundtrack. The text is sourced from Internet dating websites and combine into a single animated portrait charting an array of likes, dislikes, influences, beliefs and hobbies. This work examines the nature of consciousness and identity in a contemporary context. It reworks the languages of Internet dating websites to question how we construct and communicate our sense of self. Drawing on Zygmunt Bauman’s theoretical work on “liquid modernity”, this work presents an exaggerated take on contemporary identity that emphasizes its construction through consumer tastes, lifestyle choices and relationships with popular culture.

Outcrop

In this wall-mounted sculpture, speakers are mounted into a timber-veneered cabinet. The speakers play a dark, searching soundtrack. Also mounted on the cabinet is a photographic image of a rocky gully in the American desert. This work examines how we construct, represent and deploy notions of nature in our contemporary lives. It mixes the languages of furniture design, landscape photography and sculpture. Drawing on Zygmunt Bauman’s theoretical work on “liquid modernity”, this work questions how and where we find space for contemplation and reflection in a contemporary context increasingly defined by temporary social bonds and consumer choices.

Swell

In this video, an abstract kaleidoscopic pattern slowly morphs and changes colour. It is accompanied by a male voice performing a word association or stream-of-consciousness activity. This work examines the nature of consciousness and identity in a contemporary context. It mixes the languages of meditation, new age philosophy and pop-psychology. Drawing on Zygmunt Bauman’s theoretical work on “liquid modernity”, this work questions how and where we find space for contemplation in a contemporary context increasingly defined by temporary social bonds, consumer choices and private anxieties.

Something rotten in the state of Minnesota: or the morality of backwoodsmen: 'A Simple Plan'

'A Simple Plan' is a deceptively complex and multilayered film, combining elements of Celtic mythology with the morality play and the windfall fantasy gone disastrously wrong. Despite its blending of realism and heavyhanded symbolism, and its abundant trans-textual gestures, 'A Simple Plan' is in many ways defiantly not a 90s movie: its leading characters are fashionably flawed, but they are neither sensitive, nor honourable, nor heroic; there are no startling special effects or intricate timeshifts; and it desperately gives the impression of depth, of being emphatically more than mere superficial excess. At a stretch it almost appears to be a throwback to the 1930s Production Code emphasis on the role of cinema in moral instruction; while good hardly triumphs over evil, venality is painfully and emphatically punished. But in other ways it is a quintessential late 90s film: an American/British/Japanese/German/French co-production, 'A Simple Plan' acts most palpably as a commentary on the moral, economic and social condition of the United States at the end of the American century.

Australian content and convergence

This article is a response to Kim Dalton's 2011 Henry Mayer Lecture. It focuses on Dalton's discussion of Australian content in the context of the government's ongoing Convergence Review.

Same old 'other' mother: Neil Gaiman's Coraline

Central to Coraline’s experiences in the fantasy world beyond the walls of her flat is the ‘other’ mother, who is initially constructed as an idealised image of maternal care whose only concern is for the welfare and comfort of her child. But as the story unfolds, this belle dame rapidly transforms into the ‘beldam sans merci’, an old crone, a she-devil whose real interest lies in the power she can draw from possessing the souls of children such as Coraline. This paper explores the Gaiman’s use of archetypes and cultural stereotypes of the mother figure that feminisms have been intent on expunging, interrogating, or appropriating in positive ways.

Toward an ethnographic imperative in public relations research

A central goal in social science research is developing descriptive and causal inferences from observable data (King, Keohane, & Verba, 1994). Following this perspective, we propose ethnography as a methodological imperative in public relations research that seeks to develop descriptive inferences about the influence of an organization’s culture on its social ecology. The ethnographic imperative in research design is derived from two interlocked, epistemological commitments in research design. First, a view that the culture of an organization is constituted as a system of shared knowledge that is socially transmitted over time among organizational members. Second, as a consequence, the cognitive setting for actorbased models of organizational social relationships and imperatives is cultural in nature. Based on these commitments, ethnography as a methodological imperative is specifically enjoined when research derived from cocreational public relations theories is explicitly set in sociocultural analysis of those organizations. The strength of this ethnographic imperative in research design is reflected by the degree of congruency between the descriptive inferences drawn from ethnographic data and the theoretical context within which such inferences are situated.

Group dynamics and software engineering

This paper reports on an experiment that was conducted to determine the extent to which group dynamics impacts on the effectiveness of software development teams. The experiment was conducted on software engineering project students at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT).

Digital Storytelling within a Service-Learning Partnership: Technology as Product and Process for University Students and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse High School Youth

This chapter describes a university/high school partnership focused on digital storytelling. It also explains the multi-stage process used to establish this successful partnership and project. The authors discuss the central role that technology played in developing this university/high school partnership, a collaboration that extended the impact of a digital storytelling project to reach high school students, university students, educators, high school administrators, and the local community. Valuing a reflective process that can lead to the creation of a powerful final product, the authors describe the impact of digital storytelling on multiple stakeholders, including the 13 university students and 33 culturally and linguistically diverse high school youth who participated during the fall of 2009. In addition, the chapter includes reflections from university and high school student participants expressed during focus groups conducted throughout the project. While most participants had a positive experience with the project, complications with the technology component often caused frustrations and additional challenges. Goals for sharing this project are to critically evaluate digital storytelling, describe lessons learned, and recommend good practices for others working within a similar context or with parallel goals.

Through the viewfinder : using multimedia techniques to engage Latino youth in community planning

This chapter reviews common barriers to community engagement for Latino youth and suggests ways to move beyond those barriers by empowering them to communicate their experiences, address the challenges they face, and develop recommendations for making their community more youth-friendly. As a case study, this chapter describes a program called Youth FACE IT (Youth Fostering Active Community Engagement for Integration and Transformation)in Boulder County, Colorado. The program enables Latino youth to engage in critical dialogue and participate in a community-based initiative. The chapter concludes by explaining specific strategies that planners can use to support active community engagement and develop a future generation of planners and engaged community members that reflects emerging demographics.

A case study examination of the influence of cultural diversity in the multicultural nursing workforce on the quality of care and patient safety in a Saudi Arabian hospital

The purpose of the study: The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of cultural diversity, in a multicultural nursing workforce, on the quality and safety of patient care and the work environment at King Abdul-Aziz Medical City, Riyadh region. Study background: Due to global migration and workforce mobility, to varying degrees, cultural diversity exists in most health services around the world, particularly occurring where the health care workforce is multicultural or where the domestic population comprises minority groups from different cultures speaking different languages. Further complexities occur when countries have a multicultural workforce which is different from the population for whom they care, in addition to the workers being from culturally diverse countries and with different languages. In Saudi Arabia the health system is mainly staffed by expatriate nurses who comprise 67.7% of the total number of nurses. Study design: This research utilised a case study design which incorporated multiple methods including survey, qualitative interviews and document review. Methods: The participant nurses were selected for the survey via a population sampling strategy; 319 nurses returned their completed Safety Climate Survey questionnaires. Descriptive and inferential statistics (Kruskal–Wallis test) were used to analyse survey data. For the qualitative component of the study, a purposive sampling strategy was used; 24 nurses were interviewed using a semi-structured interview technique. The documentary review included KAMC-R policy documents that met the inclusion criteria using a predetermined data abstraction instrument. Content analysis was used to analyse the policy documents data. Results: The data revealed the nurses‘ perceptions of the clinical climate in this multicultural environment is that it was unsafe, with a mean score of 3.9 out of 5. No significant difference was detected between the age groups or years of experience of the nurses and the perception of safety climate in this context; the study did reveal a statistically significant difference between the cultural background categories and the perception of safety climate. The qualitative phase indicated that the nurses within this environment were struggling to achieve cultural competence; consequently, they were having difficulties in meeting the patients‘ cultural and spiritual needs as well as maintaining a high standard of care. The results also indicated that nurses were disempowered in this context. Importantly, there was inadequate support by the organisation to manage the cultural diversity issue and to protect patients from any associated risks, as demonstrated by the policy documents and supported by the nurses‘ experiences. The study also illustrated the limitations of the conceptual framework of cultural competence when tested in this multicultural workforce context. Therefore, this study generated amendments to the model that is suitable to be used in the context of a multicultural nursing workforce. Conclusion: The multicultural nature of this nursing work environment is inherently risky due to the conflicts that arise from the different cultural norms, beliefs, behaviours and languages. Further, there was uncertainty within the multicultural nursing workforce about the clinical and cultural safety of the patient care environment and about the cultural safety of the nursing workforce. The findings of the study contribute important new knowledge to the area of patient and nurse safety in a multicultural environment and contribute theoretical development to the field of cultural competence. Specifically, the findings will inform policy and practice related to patient care in the context of cultural diversity.

Enhancing foreign language learning through listening strategy delivered in L1: an experimental study

Listening used in language teaching refers to a complex process that allows us to understand spoken language. The current study, conducted in Iran with an experimental design, investigated the effectiveness of teaching listening strategies delivered in L1 (Persian) and its effect on listening comprehension in L2. Five listening strategies: Guessing, making inferences, identifying topics, repetition, and note-taking were taught over 14 weeks during a semester. Sixty lower intermediate female participants came from two EFL classrooms in an English language institute. The experimental class (n = 30) who listened to their classroom activities performed better (t value = 10.083) than the control class using a methodology that led learners through five listening strategies in Persian. The same teacher taught the students in the control class (n = 30), who listened to the same classroom listening activities without any of the above listening strategies. A pre and post listening test made by a group of experts in the language institute assessed the effect of teaching listening strategies delivered in L1. Results gathered on the post intervention listening test revealed that listening strategies delivered in L1 led to a statistically significant improvement in their discrete listening scores compared with the control group.