Between Citizenships
A thesis in three variations, each exploring citizenship from different perspectives.
Using design, I rethink citizenship at the individual, interpersonal, and institutional levels. The result is a set of proposals to help us construct alternative identities, relationships, and structures for a more just and resilient world.
Watch the 20 minute thesis presentation above︎︎︎
Recognition:
Awarded the AHO Works prize for Complexity & Holistic Approach
Nominated for the AHO Works prize for Strategic Use of Design
Supervisor: Josina Vink
Service Design
Strategic Design
Speculative Design
Policy Design
2024
Strategic Design
Speculative Design
Policy Design
2024
1: A Variation on the Self
The first variation of my project is a creative autoethnography that traces my own relationship with citizenship and reveals my subjectivity as a designer intervening in the topic.
The first variation of my project is a creative autoethnography that traces my own relationship with citizenship and reveals my subjectivity as a designer intervening in the topic.
2: A Variation with Another
I developed a facilitation plan that invites people historically excluded from full citizenship to imagine what they want the future of it to be like. This was developed in partnership with the Interactivity Foundation, a US nonprofit.
I developed a facilitation plan that invites people historically excluded from full citizenship to imagine what they want the future of it to be like. This was developed in partnership with the Interactivity Foundation, a US nonprofit.
3: A Variation on an Institution
My third and final variation engages with the legal dimensions of citizenship through a speculative policy document for Norway. The document appropriates the form of an NOU, or Official Norwegian Report.
NOUs, like green papers in other parts of the world, represent the knowledge foundation for policy issues and lay the groundwork for future policy and legislation.
Titled “Citizenship in a Just Future,” my alternative NOU uses design to materialize and surface alternative legal principles, democratic models, and structures of governance that promise more equitable, just, and sustainable worlds.
Read aNOU 2024:1 “Citizenship in A Just Future” here︎︎︎
My third and final variation engages with the legal dimensions of citizenship through a speculative policy document for Norway. The document appropriates the form of an NOU, or Official Norwegian Report.
NOUs, like green papers in other parts of the world, represent the knowledge foundation for policy issues and lay the groundwork for future policy and legislation.
Titled “Citizenship in a Just Future,” my alternative NOU uses design to materialize and surface alternative legal principles, democratic models, and structures of governance that promise more equitable, just, and sustainable worlds.
Read aNOU 2024:1 “Citizenship in A Just Future” here︎︎︎
Process
The alternative NOU was shaped through approaches from co-design and explores how “democratic” processes from formal governance could be enriched by “democratic” processes from design.
The alternative NOU was shaped through approaches from co-design and explores how “democratic” processes from formal governance could be enriched by “democratic” processes from design.
Content
It uses speculative and strategic design to expand political imagination and provoke deeper reflection on abstract hypotheticals.
It uses speculative and strategic design to expand political imagination and provoke deeper reflection on abstract hypotheticals.
Form
The work is packaged into a Figma prototype with interactions that open up the policymaking process and emphasize the dynamic nature of public documents.
The work is packaged into a Figma prototype with interactions that open up the policymaking process and emphasize the dynamic nature of public documents.
