The Ethical World of Design
As designers, we have a certain responsibility. We might create a new part of the world; this will alter our user’s actions and perceptions of the world (2006, Verbeek). We are partly responsible for the consequences of our product. Therefore, it is important to think about the influence our product might have. This is a visual representation (lemniscate) of the intended interaction of stakeholders and context through our design:
In this lemniscate, the expected interactions between the target group and the context are shown. The target group will live in a context that gives them more bodily health, a better quality of life, and food security. However, for this, they will have to do some work (this is the influence the context has on the target group). In turn, the influence of the target group on the context will change. They will have a stronger position in society (affiliation) and more control over their physical environment.
Appropriateness
“Any object, process, idea, or practice that enhances human fulfillment through satisfaction of human needs. A technology is deemed to be appropriate when it is compatible with local, cultural, and economic conditions (i.e., the human, material and cultural resources of the economy), and utilizes locally available materials and energy resources, with tools and processes maintained and operationally controlled by the local population” (Hazeltine, 2003).
The heart of the design process is the interaction between the stakeholders, the product and the context. In order to make an appropriate design, we need to keep altering the product until we find something that combines the needs and values of the stakeholders with the possibilities the context offers. However, this is of course a gradation instead of a black-and-white “good” and “bad” thing. Designing the perfect product is impossible. This is also caused by the variety within our target group; we are focusing on a very big part of society. We tried to do it as well as we could while keeping next main points in mind:
Inclusiveness
The product should not exclude anyone based on things like religion or level of education. We took these variations in account:
- Age. There are a lot of children and elderly people in the target group (Deshpande, 2011). They might take on tasks that have to do with building or maintaining the product. Therefore, it is important to make the product suitable for every age.
- Gender. Men are seen as the primary income earner, while women are seen as the persons responsible for “the rest”: raising children, doing household chores, putting food on the table (Chowdhury & Patnaik, 2013). If we want to focus more on men, we should make the product into something that they can earn money with. If we want to focus more on women, we should make the product into something that mainly provides their own family with food.
- Level of education. Many people in the slums drop out of school (Moya 2017). This means that not everyone might have a sufficient education to understand more complex mathematics or language. We should keep the product simple and be able to explain it without complicated language.
- Culture. In India, the caste system is important. The product should be available to everyone, including the lowest caste (Dalits).
- Attitude towards food. Since our target group is usually more concerned with finding food that gives enough energy to get through the day, it is important for them to have a source of vitamins and other nutrients as well.
Ease of Use
The easier the product is to use, the more likely our target group is to use it. It will also be relatively more productive if it does not cost a lot of time/expertise to maintain. This is addressed by using hydroponics; this is a very easy way of farming.
Ease of Building
Ease of building. It is very important that the skills and materials necessary to build the product are available to our target group. To ensure this, we used low-tech in our design. Still we should also take into account the engenuity of the people. There are a lot of very skilled craftsmen in the environment; they have lots of experience with recycling and building products. This context allows for the product to use more than just the basic materials/skills.
Physical Environment
The product should be able to thrive in the crowded and dark slums. Furthermore, it should be able to function during both the monsoon and the dry season.
Design Ethics
Part of responsible design is moving from the design context to a thought experiment in which we try to predict the way the product shapes the users’ relationship with the world. This ensures that we get a prediction that is as broad as possible. For this, we will consider the impact our product might have on both the users’ perception of the world and the users’ actions.
Building and Sustaining
Our product will require the user to perform actions to build and sustain it. These actions seem to be quite neutral; they mainly include gathering/buying materials (like water, plastic pipes or fertilizer).
Furthermore, the materials will have to be put together in a specific way. As long as we make sure that this is safe for the users, this is not problematic.
For all People
Our product might encourage alternative behaviours to the ones mentioned before. For example, getting water might be a tedious and tiring task for parents who already have to work a lot. Because of this, they might delegate it to their children. Other people include elderly people or unemployed handicapped people. However, this is not too much of a problem, since all these groups will benefit from the results of our product. According to UNICEF (2020), it is okay for children to help out a bit as long as they have no more than three hours of chores per day. Again, if our product is safe to use for these groups it is ethically not problematic.
Empowerment
Our product will influence individual users and thereby influence the community. In an environment where food and money are scarce, a source of food or income is a source of power. This might affect the existing power balances in the community. Earlier small-scale gardening projects found that the farms often empower women. In these contexts, men are the primary income earners. Partly because of this they have more authority in the household. Sadly enough, they do not always use this very well; alcoholism and drug abuse are quite common. The earlier projects found that women are often seen as responsible for putting food on the table, which is the case in our context as well. Because of this, they will often be the ones caring for the gardens. And when the gardens flourish, their say in the household increases. They will start behaving more independently, freer, and more self-confident (interview with developmental workers) (IFAD, 2019) (SM Sehgal Foundation, 2018). These were not things we were originally designed for, but they are a welcome addition.
In Conclusion
we predict that our product will have a very good influence on the target group. We can of course not foresee all the possible ways it might be used, but for as far as we can see there should not be any ethical constraints to producing it.
