“There is nothing more dangerous than to build a society with a large segment of people in that society who feel that they have no stake in it; who feel that that have nothing to lose. People, who have stake in their society, protect that society, but when they don’t have it, they unconsciously want to destroy it.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
This was today’s quote from my MLK Daily Quote App. I found it extremely important as a designer and specifically for me as I am developing an interest in community development. It raises the question of how to develop space for people and make them feel that the space is for them. Is it through a genuine understanding of the people and there experiences? Is it through targeting the needs that are not being met and making them meet? Is it by participatory design tactics that bring the people together to talk about these things? Yes! I think it is all of these things… and plenty other factors too. What I do not know is where the balance is in the weight that each factor is considered. I believe that knowing where this balance lies is what makes any designer great and able to produce great designs that are respected and preserved by the very people the designers were for.
Image courtesy of http://worksheetsplus.com/mlk/mlk2.jpg
Michele Crawford 