Envisioning a Future Design Education in vulnerable emerging economies - Insight 2015, Bangalore, India

Envisioning a Future Design Education in vulnerable emerging economies

Lesley-Ann [email protected]

The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine CampusTrinidad & Tobago

DESIGN RESEARCH IN ACADEMIC PRACTICEINSIGHT 2015 January 23 – 24th 2015 Bangalore India

KEYWORDSDesign Education, Vulnerable Developing Economies

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• “Since most design professions involve shaping goods and services within large industrial economies, this political-economic context is one key to the realities of design education today and tomorrow”

Ken Friedman

Lesley-Ann Noel University of the West Indies

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• “While the need for design education is obvious in large emerging economies such as in Brazil or India, the need may seem less obvious in very more vulnerable economies, where there is no critical mass of designers or even public appreciation for design.

• Is there a need for design education in Least Developed Countries, Landlocked developing countries and ‘Small Island developing states’ like those found in the Caribbean and the Pacific, or in many of the economies of Africa?


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ABOUT DEVELOPING ECONOMIES

• A developing country is one where the majority of the population lives on significantly less money with fewer basic public services than in highly industrialized countries.

• Designers’ skills and services are needed in all developing countries, but could also place a very great role in the development and progress of these most vulnerable developing countries.


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Least Developed Countries • Poorest segment of the international community • approx. 12% of the world population (880 million people) • less than 2 per cent of the world GDP • about 1% of global trade in goods.

• primarily agrarian economies• affected by low productivity and low investment• little success in diversifying into the manufacturing sector, • limited product range • labour-intensive manufacturing e.g. textiles and clothing.

• 34 countries in Africa, 13 in Asia and the Pacific and 1 in Latin America.


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Landlocked Developing Countries • 31 countries • sixteen are also LDCs • total population - 428 million. • lack access to the sea, • isolated from world markets • high transit costs, which impact economic

development. • in most cases the nearest neighbours of

LLDCs are also developing countries and • major markets are far away, making it near

impossible to export high value-added products.


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Small Island Developing States • 39 countries • The combined population of 63.2million • narrow resource base • small markets that deny = poor economies of scale• small domestic markets, • heavy dependence on external and remote markets, • high costs of energy, infrastructure, transportation

communications, • long distances from major export markets and imported inputs

for production, • low and irregular volumes of international traffic, • fragile natural environments and limited resilience to natural

disasters such as hurricanes, • limited opportunities for their private sectors • large reliance on the public sector, • growing populations, volatile economic growth.


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FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH DEVELOPMENT SUCCESS

• Economic growth, • a vibrant private sector, • empowerment, • good governance and • ownership by the countries of

their own development agenda.

World Bank Lesley-Ann Noel University of the West Indies

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Four indicators of competitiveness

• The ability of enterprises to export to an array of countries without special government support.

• The ability of enterprises to engage in foreign direct investment based upon skills and assets developed at home.

• The ability of enterprises to operate according to international standards and quality

• The ability of enterprises to earn above-average returns in a market setting which includes domestic competitors and rival enterprises from other countries.

WintLesley-Ann Noel University of the West Indies

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CORRELATION BETWEEN DESIGN AND COMPETITIVENESS

• Countries positioned higher in the stages of development tend to be those where design policies and programmes are in place.

• In more competitive economies there is a greater consciousness of the need for innovation and design in order to remain competitive, while countries with less sophisticated economies are less likely to use design policies to improve their industries as a tool for social development or to address issues such as to improve basic systems such as health infrastructure, crime prevention, education and transport Raulik-Murphy


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• Design can play a role in ensuring that manufacturing industries remain competitive even in the developing world, where they can contribute to the modernisation of traditional industries through the development of more market-focussed products, with competitive branding and packaging, and even through the development of more efficient machinery and processes in collaboration with other technical professionals.


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• Designers can also play a role in the preservation of non-manufactured goods such as indigenous crafts by playing a role in developing products that ensure that these products are still appreciated, and offering support to museums and other cultural institutions in the presentation of these crafts to the public.


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Examples of design practice and improving industries and increasing competitiveness in the developing world

• India National Design Policy document that aims to create a ‘design enabled Indian industry which

could have a positive impact on both the national economy and the quality of life’.

• South Africa Design is often used to meet the country’s specific needs e.g. mining.

• South Korea the Korean Institute of Design Promotion with the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and energy

prepare annual and five year plans.

• Turkey planned the establishment of industrial design schools to meet future demand anticipated

from import-substitution strategies between the 1960s and 1980s, and therefore industrial design in Turkey emerged at an educational level before the actual demand was created by Turkish industry.

• Indonesia several industrial design programmes and industrial designers employed by many sectors of

the economy including manufacturing, small and medium-scale industry, media, government and education. Lesley-Ann Noel University of the West Indies

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PERSPECTIVES ON DESIGN EDUCATION

Science and Technology

DesignArt

Hermeneutics

Creative and Applied Arts

Technology and

Engineering

Natural Sciences

Humanities

Social Sciences

Research Skills

Create value in the products and services that we

create

Shape behavioural

change

Design Education in the

Developed World

Roos, Freidman, NormanLesley-Ann Noel University of the West Indies

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PERSPECTIVES ON DESIGN EDUCATION

Science and Technology

DesignArt

Hermeneutics

Creative and Applied Arts

Technology and

Engineering

Natural Sciences

Humanities

Social Sciences

Research Skills

Create value in the products and services that we

create

Shape behavioural

change

Design Education in the

Developing World

Roos, Freidman, Norman

All of the above and more!


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• Design input in manufacturing in developing countries is often from external sources.

• Necessary to increase the design capacity in these countries, so that designers can play a role in developing locally generated solutions to design problems including product development and responses to social issues.

• Locally generated solutions can also tie back to one of

the World Bank’s common factors for successful development – ‘ownership by countries of their own development agenda.

Design education in the developing world


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Skills for Designers in the Developing World

• Social and Environmental Responsibility• Anthropology and ethnography• Sustainability• Culture• Behavioural Sciences / Change

Management• Entrepreneurship• Skills relating to advocacy, lobbying and

collaborating with the public sector


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Designers in the Developing World

• Lobbyist • Anthropologist/Ethnographer • Environmentalist • Behavioural Scientist


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Challenges for Designers in Least Developed Countries (LDCs)

• Improve productivity and product ranges within the manufacturing sector

• Create opportunities for investment

• Support economic diversification strategies of these countries

• Support initiatives to meet the Millennium Development Goals


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Challenges for Designers in Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs)

• Support efforts to improve transportation logistics

• Develop successful high-value added products that can be exported and distributed despite the landlocked nature of these countries


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Challenges for Designers in Small Island Developing States (SIDS)

• Support initiatives related to climate change and natural disasters and Sustainable Development

• Support import-substitution / reduction strategies

• Address product development challenges related to smallness of markets and isolation from large markets


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CONCLUSION

Is there a need for design education in LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS like those found in the Caribbean and the Pacific, or in many of the economies of Africa and Asia?

YES!!!

Even in the most vulnerable economies, designers and design education can contribute to promoting change and supporting economic growth.
