"Design for Empathy" – Exploring the Potential of Participatory Design for Fostering Restorative Values and Contributing to Restorative Process
- Submitting institution
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University of the Arts, London
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 191
- Type
- C - Chapter in book
- DOI
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- Book title
- Offenders No More: An Interdisciplinary Restorative Justice Dialogue
- Publisher
- Nova
- ISBN
- 978-1-63483-681-4
- Open access status
- -
- Month of publication
- -
- Year of publication
- 2015
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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1
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This essay perceives an “empathy deficit” in society (Obama, 2006) and the need to find new ways to address it. It offers a social design approach aimed at transdisciplinary researchers who wish to move beyond psychological or market-led design accounts. It asks the research question, “Can designers design for empathy by creating empathic social experiences that bring diverse people together to build understanding and tolerance?”
Its research methodology draws on design, restorative justice and social psychology to offer theoretical interrogation and new insights into how designing ‘with’, as opposed to ‘for’, empathy might differ. It assesses critically specific art and design forms that offer ways to build empathy, asking how participatory — as opposed to user-centred — design can produce different relational approaches that aim to connect people.
The essay also offers a critical account of why designing empathic ‘things’, defined by Binder et al (2012) as “socio-material assemblies”, can create collaborative experiences that build relational connections between diverse groups as well as cognitive empathic capacity. Research insights suggest that designing for pro-social engagements can lead to understanding of the “Other” and that empathy ‘things’ (installations, games, etc.) can promote strong connections between diverse peoples, which has the potential to lead to a model of empathy by design.
Further dissemination of this research has occurred via Gamman’s lectures as PI of the AHRC-funded Extending Empathy Network; also at the Maharashtra Institute of Technology (MIT), Pune, India (February 2016); the 3rd International Symposium on Restorative Justice, Skopelos, Greece (July 2016); and National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad (February 2016).
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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