Participatory design

II. The first dimension to Empowerment: the materialistic component The problem with categorising the poor in the context of participation is that the poor are often fragmented – geographically, economically and socially - and the preferences within the poor vary vastly (Emmett, 2000). Additionally, one must not forget the existing inequalities between the members within a community; one has to be cautious of the spatial politics of the poor. Hence, external actors (such as NGOs) must be careful

Chap. 1. What is apathy? Before inspecting the root causes and solutions to the problem of apathy, a uniform definition of apathy must be obtained to be used throughout this thesis. In the Oxford English Dictionary, the word apathy is defined as: lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern. The usage of the word apathy can be traced back to 17th century France, and then still further back to the ancient greek word apathēs, which meant without feeling. As the dictionary makes clear, the concept

In a democratic government, citizen participation is essential and beneficial in order to ensure everyone’s opinions will be heard and represented. With a wide range of morals, socioeconomic statuses, personalities, and knowledge existing among the American population, citizens’ participation in the democratic system range from dedicated, involved, and uninvolved. The upbringing and life situation of individuals directly affects their governmental decisions including their stances on issues the country

representative. Democracy is ideally a structure of governance that is by and for the people. These definitions represent democracy in its most pure unadulterated sense, true direct democracy (or participatory democracy). James N. Danziger in Understanding the political world expresses that “[…] participatory democracy […] is when all the citizens are active, direct participants in making public policy decisions. Realistically [there is no true form of this political system].” (Chapter 7, Page 170)

In every form of government system we have two sides of the same equation, (people and power). The kind or form of the democracy depends how these two sides are balanced. The more democratic a democracy becomes the more and the better the two sides of equation will be balanced which means people which is the source of power in a democracy will have less propensity of their rights to be violated. There are two main concepts which are very important in a democracy and especially in a liberal form of

The report: “Crisis of Democracy: Report on the Governability of Democracy to the Trilateral Commission” by Crozier, Huntington and Watanuki is not a crisis theory in the classical sense. Far below the level of abstraction of Habermas’s “theories of legitimation,” the three authors of the report do not begin with theoretical considerations or normative explanations, but with a question: “Is political democracy, as it exists today, a viable form of government?” (Crozier et al. 1975: 2). The answer

Peter Guresky Dr. Wysocki Honors Constitution 12 December 2015 Tocqueville describes the problems which arise in the democracies, which in his time have begun to emerge in the world. For Tocqueville, the most serious threat to democracy is individualism, and the solution to this problem is self-interest well understood. Though individualism causes citizens to focus on a small circle of interest and sever himself from society at large, self-interest well understood teaches citizens about the advantages

Critically analyse Hart’s Ladder of Participation. What are the types of decisions children and young people can be involved in, and what is the link between the children and the adults when the participatory approach is put into practice? When should adults be more active in guiding children, and when should they step back and allow the children to work autonomously? Roger Hart (1992) developed a model, the Ladder of participation, which is made up from eight steps, each step indicate increasing

The question why nonprofit organizations exist can be answered in various forms, depending on which disciplines and orientations one has adopted. In political theory, for instance, nonprofit exists because of its partnership with the government sector in financing a variety of public services. The political scientists view both existences in relations to providing opportunities for civic participation in the pluralistic and political system of a heterogeneous society (Wikipedia, 2017). In order

Collaborative design approaches such as co-design aim to result in usable, successful products and services which are tailored to a project’s target group and their actual needs. This article discusses how they work, why they work, and when they can fail. The time is October 2001. US technology company Apple Inc., nowadays widely known for their iPhone smartphones, just unveiled the iPod – a portable music player. Two years later, 1.4 million of these devices have been sold; it turned out to be an