Materializing Nano Equity: Lessons from Design

Many engineers and designers got into their professions in large part because they wanted to create products that help people. Translating this desire into material objects is not a straightforward process. Contexts and complexities often make it difficult for such visions to be realized. In this chapter Dean Nieusma offers advice for designers who want to assist the world’s poor and disadvantaged. Unfortunately most of the existing structures and institutions that shape or direct the practice of designers are geared towards the wealthy and powerful. And, as Nieusma points out, understanding both the needs and the context of the “have nots” can be a significant challenge for the “haves.”

[1]  Brian J. Bailey The Luddite Rebellion , 1998 .

[2]  J. Mark Porter,et al.  Envisioning future needs: from pragmatics to pleasure , 2002 .

[3]  David H. Guston,et al.  The yearbook of nanotechnology in society , 2008 .

[4]  J. Rothschild Machina Ex Dea: Feminist Perspectives on Technology , 1983 .

[5]  Ian Smillie Mastering the Machine: Poverty, Aid and Technology , 1991 .

[6]  E. Dudley The Critical Villager: Beyond Community Participation , 1993 .

[7]  Pelle Ehn,et al.  Scandinavian Design: On Participation and Skill , 1992, Usability - Turning Technologies into Tools.

[8]  David E. Nye,et al.  American Technological Sublime , 1995, IEEE technology & society magazine.

[9]  G. Foladori,et al.  Nanotechnology and the developing world: will nanotechnology overcome poverty or widen disparities? , 2005 .

[10]  Rob Imrie,et al.  Inclusive Design: Designing and Developing Accessible Environments , 2001 .

[11]  P. Garrouste,et al.  Evolution and path dependence in economic ideas : past and present , 2001 .

[12]  Rachel N. Weber,et al.  Manufacturing Gender in Commercial and Military Cockpit Design , 1997 .

[13]  O. Straume,et al.  Technology resistance and globalisation with trade unions: the choice between employment protection and flexicurity , 2007 .

[14]  M. Dubbeling,et al.  Participatory design of public spaces for urban agriculture, Rosario, Argentina , 2009 .

[15]  T. P. Hughes,et al.  Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society , 1984 .

[16]  Nigel Whiteley,et al.  Design For Society , 1993 .

[17]  D. Edge,et al.  The social shaping of technology , 1988 .

[18]  Dean Nieusma,et al.  Alternative Design Scholarship: Working Toward Appropriate Design , 2004, Design Issues.

[19]  David E. Nye,et al.  American Technological Sublime , 1995, IEEE Technology and Society Magazine.

[20]  Deb Bennett-Woods,et al.  Nanotechnology: Ethics and Society , 2008 .

[21]  M. Kyng,et al.  Introduction: Situated Design , 1992 .

[22]  G. Hodgson The Evolution of Economic Institutions: A Critical Reader , 2007 .

[23]  Toomas Timpka,et al.  Research Paper: Participatory Design of Information Systems in Health Care , 1998, J. Am. Medical Informatics Assoc..

[24]  P. Polak,et al.  Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail , 2009 .

[25]  Douglas Schuler,et al.  Participatory Design: Principles and Practices , 1993 .

[26]  Albert H. Teich Technology and the Future , 1972 .

[27]  Ken Darrow,et al.  Appropriate Technology Sourcebook: A Guide to Practical Books for Village and Small Community Technology , 1986 .

[28]  R. Chambers Whose Reality Counts?: Putting the First Last , 1997 .

[29]  S. O. Afram,et al.  Continuity, Utility and Change: The Urban Compound House in Ghana , 2009 .

[30]  P. David Path Dependence, its Critics, and the Quest for ‘Historical Economics’ , 2005 .

[31]  Thomas P. Hughes,et al.  Networks Of Power , 1983 .

[32]  B. Barber Strong Democracy: Participatory Politics for a New Age , 1985 .

[33]  Juliet B. Schor,et al.  The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline Of Leisure , 1991 .

[34]  David H. Guston,et al.  Real-time technology assessment , 2020, Emerging Technologies: Ethics, Law and Governance.

[35]  Daniel Sarewitz,et al.  Frontiers of illusion , 1996 .

[36]  L. Winner The Whale and the Reactor , 2020 .

[37]  P. Jordan,et al.  Pleasure With Products : Beyond Usability , 2002 .

[38]  Morten Kyng,et al.  Design at Work , 1992 .

[39]  T. P. Hughes Networks of power : electrification in Western society, 1880-1930 , 1984 .

[40]  K. Willoughby Technology Choice: A Critique of the Appropriate Technology Movement, Kelvin W. Willoughby. 1990. Westview Press, Boulder, CO. 350 pages. ISBN: 0-8133-7806-0. $NA , 1989 .

[41]  Victor J. Papanek,et al.  Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change , 1972 .

[42]  G. Foladori,et al.  The Workers’ Push to Democratize Nanotechnology , 2008 .

[43]  D. Hess Science and Technology in a Multicultural World: The Cultural Politics of Facts and Artifacts , 1995 .

[44]  George A. Covington,et al.  Access by Design , 1996 .

[45]  Alejandro Ayala,et al.  Participatory design of agroforestry systems: Developing farmer participatory research methods in Mexico , 2001 .

[46]  Robert C. Wicklein Appropriate technology for sustainable living , 2001 .

[47]  John Pendergrass,et al.  Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies , 2007 .

[48]  Leslie Weisman,et al.  Discrimination by Design: A Feminist Critique of the Man-Made Environment , 1992 .