More services aren’t the answer to more justice or equity. So, what is?
Beyond Service Design follows Beyond Sticky Notes (are you noticing a theme emerging?) We’re planning a series of community events, collaborations and maybe even a new book.
How can we design for care and repair, instead of disruption and disrespect? Where do we focus so much on deficits, that we overlook people’s contributions, strengths, joy and resilience?
No matter how well-designed, services are not a stand-in for relationships and belonging. Without care, services can reproduce inequality or create new inequities. As service designers, we are both part of the problem and part of the solution.
This is a work of provocation. Therefore, we recognise:
Acute and public services play an important role and must work well
Services must be intentionally designed for good outcomes
More/better/new/different services are not the answer to every question and cannot match the scale of many of the challenges we face.
A design ethic build on care and repair, underpinned by genuine co-design
Led by Kelly Ann McKercher, author of Beyond Sticky Notes: Co-design for Real, this work and exploration builds on the shoulders of many thinkers, movements and traditions. To name a few: Dori Tunstall, Ingrid Burkett, Penny Hagen, Lesley Ann-Noel, Hilary Cottam, Sloan Leo, Dan Hill, John McKnight, Morgan Lee Cataldo, Edgar S. Cahn, Annika Hansteen-Izora, Arturo Escobar, Jo Szczepanska, Audre Lorde, María Puig de la Bellacasa, Antionette D. Carroll, Peter Westoby, Sasha Costanza-Chock, Euan Black, Seanna Davidson, Adrienne Maree Brown, Laura van Dernoot Lipsky, Cassie Robinson, Chris Vanstone, George Aye and Cormac Russell.
And no doubt, a great many more people and movements to come.
Image: Claudia van Zyl on Unsplash