Recent Civic Design Workshop Co-Hosted by Florida Gulf Coast Student Leaders and The Move
“We speak with our peers not for our peers” — Florida Gulf Coast Student Leaders
On September 29, 2019, alongside Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) Professor AJ Nunes-Zaller, thirteen students from FGCU, and FGSU Local Design Partner Brandon McDowell, The Move was honored to co-lead a Civic Design Workshop inspired by Ceasar McDowell’s eight principles of civic engagement. The overarching purpose of these principles is to rebuild our public muscle for democracy through authentic civic engagement, and through the inclusion of a beautifully complex “public.”
Entirely facilitated by FGCU students, the workshop sought to explore applications of these eight principles, and to build community with Boston’s college students and faculty. Below, we’ve shared four civic design principles — Collaboration, Equity, Systemic Change, and Analog — and the instructive (and fun!) workshop activities students designed to understand them as they are applied to their practice and lived experiences. Keep an eye out for a second blog covering the remaining four principles, and a FGCU reflections piece in the upcoming weeks!
Four Civic Design Principles
Design for Collaboration
In this workshop activity, facilitators Sofia Bodniza and Martin Angus Jr. asked participants to partner with the person next to them to create a handshake with intentionality. The exercise requested that group’s handshakes merge participants life experiences and values. This required attendees to meaningfully participate and work together, as they were each actively involved in imagining and shaping design, and building consensus to create the final outcome. Read more about designing for collaboration here.
Design for Systemic Change
This activity was designed by Nonnel Soraya Galaviz-Johnson and Autumn Crosley. Participants interacted with and contribute to a hand-made tree with post-its naming the different types of oppressions we have to address in a movement towards systemic change — what the students called “the roots of a failed democracy.” This activity is important in that before designing for systemic change, the public needs to be asked what our critical challenges are, which requires empowering the public to define the change that is needed going forward. Read more about designing for systemic change here.
Design for Analog and Digital Means
Activity leaders Matthew Kaminski and Peter Lange engaged attendees from their moment of arrival. The two students gave a digital and paper scavenger hunt map to each participant, which prompted them to use QR codes to guide their route across workshop stations. Participants were also asked to share their perspectives through an anonymous survey. Overall, this exercise demonstrated how digital and analog tools can work together to keep people informed and engaged. Because the real world makes use of both platforms, it is necessary to make room for both methods of engagement. Read more about planning for analog and digital means here.
Design for the Margins
Betzaira Mayorga Calleros created a PowerPoint presentation which highlighted how our political, social and economic systems are exclusionary, and the great need to include those whose interests and needs are silenced in traditional democratic processes. In the spirit of redesigning processes for and with those who have been historically excluded, and to uplift voices on the margins , this activity also shared case studies on past efforts to accomplish just that. Read more about designing for the margins here.
“The workshop was carefully designed and well implemented by FGCU students. I truly appreciated being able to speak about civic engagement from my own lived experience.” — Andrea Grimaldi, Workshop participant and MIT Master in City Planning Student
