INS ANDIAS

Design & Illustration

OLA KOZAWSKA
Graphic & Product
Design

KAAJAL MODI
Graphic Design
& Citizenship

introduction
The project is a collaboration between Glasgow
School of Art, the Institute of Design Innovation,
Chiba University Tokyo and Toshiba. The aim is to
find a space within which technology can enable
social innovation, and design a solution within
three problem spaces which are: Food, Shelter and
Politics.
Our group was asked to look at politics, and how
emerging M2M and IoT Technologies could be
leveraged in order to increase political engagement
in the civic sphere.

THE BRIEF
Exploring political topographies and the political
discourse of individuals and groups.

MICHAEL RHODES
Experience Design

Investigating how emerging M2M, networked

objects and IoT technologies can facilitate the
digital and physical proliferation / manifestation /
dissemination of political ideas and how these can
be used as a means to foster debate, the birth of
ideas and increase political engagement between
people and places within the civic sphere.

NOVA ZHANG
Broadcast Journalism

how do people currently

understand or interact
with politics?

THE methodS

Engagement tools - postcards

The project required the investigation of both current

and imagined futures within which to situate the
design solution. As part of this, we did case studies of
current political activity in Scotland, particularly the
recent referendum on an independent Scotland,
and on potential future scenarios for both politics and
technology.

We chose not to narrow the demographic at

the early stages, or look only at exisiting political
situations, but to use all of the resources available
to us in order to fully grasp the concepts of
engagement, politics, technologies and
futures, and the varying ways in which they fit with
each other.

We developed a range of research tools, including

postcards, surveys, and games.

These resources included popular culture, science

fiction, social events and activities happening in
Glasgow at the time of research.

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 2-5

DEFINE 50-61

DELIVER 72-95

THE TEAM
THE BRIEF
THE METHODS

SYNTHESIS
INSIGHTS
OPPORTUNITIES

PROTOTYPING
RENDERING
INTERACTION

DEVELOP 62-71

acknowledgements

DISCOVER
RESEARCH
STAKEHOLDERS
ENGAGEMENT TOOLS
Hong Kong Protests

6-49

IDEATION
CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
CONCEPT EVALUATION

96

DISCOVER

internet of things

DESK research

Internet of Things is a concept based on

interconnected devices within the existing
Internet infrastructure, represented on the graph
as a cloud of data. Machine to Machine
(M2M) is an integral part of IoT and refers to
technologies that allow smart devices (i.e.
devices equipped with sensors that collect data
and microchips that allow to transmit this data)
to communicate with each other.

IoT is a consequence of an rapidly increasing

interconnectivity in todays world where the
concept of network became fundamental.
It is believed that the networked technologies
can facilitate the essence of any political activity
which is communication between the individuals
and groups of people and, as a result, lead to an
increased political awareness and engagement.

11

UN Assembly

politics
A variety of methods are employed in politics, which
include promoting ones own political views among
people, negotiation with other political subjects,
making laws, and exercising force, including warfare against adversaries. Politics is exercised on a
wide range of social levels, from clans and tribes of
traditional societies, through modern local governments, companies and institutions up to sovereign
states, to the international level. A political system
is a framework which defines acceptable political
methods within a given society (e.g. Democracy in
the UK, Socialism in China).

global politics
Global politics include different practices of
political globalisation in relation to questions of
social power: from global patterns of governance
to issues of globalising conflict. Global politics
also concerns the rise of global and international
organisations. The United Nations has served as a
forum for peace in a world threatened by nuclear
war, The invention of nuclear and space weapons has made war unacceptable as an instrument
for achieving political ends.

individual politics

CIVIC politics
A civic culture is a political culture characterised by
acceptance of the authority of the state and a
belief in participation in civic duties. Civic political
culture is a mixture of other political cultures namely
parochial, subject and participant political cultures.

Individual politics is used here to signify the means by

which an individual interacts with political structures
and mechanisms rather than Individualism as in the
moral worth of an individual or the elevation of said
individual above social needs or hierarchies.

Britain has traditionally been characterised as having

a civic political culture, however whether this is still
the case has been a topic up for recent debate.

These structures include national / international

governments and local / regional councils, and the
mechanisms include, but are not limited to, voting,
petitioning, campaigning, or demonstration.

13

traditional politics
emcompasses left to right

left vs right

spectrum & hierarchical

power structures

COMMUNIST

DEMOCRAT

MODERATE

MORE LIBERAL

REPUBLICAN

FASCIST

MORE CONSERVATIVE

traditional views
The left-right political spectrum is a system of
classifying political positions, ideologies and
parties. Left-wing politics and right-wing politics are
often presented as opposed, although a particular
individual or group may take a left-wing stance on
one matter and a right-wing stance on another.
In France, where the terms originated, the Left
has been called the party of movement and
the Right the party of order. The intermediate
stance is called centrism and a person with such a
position is a moderate.
UK Parliament

Traditional political power structures work in a

hierarchical manner. Hierarchical leadership
employs a top-down (controlled, directed, or
organised from the top), pyramid-shaped structure
with a narrow center of power that trickles down to
widening bases of subordinate levels. An example
of this is when government institutions make a
decision or law that then governs the actions of
people at the lower levels.

15

grassroots movements are

driven by a communitys
politics, often at the local
level, by volunteers

grassroots views
A grassroots movement (often referenced in
the context of a political movement) is driven
by a communitys politics. The term implies that
the creation of the movement and the group
supporting it are natural and spontaneous,
highlighting the differences between this and
a movement that is orchestrated by traditional
power structures. Grassroots movements are
often at the local level, as many volunteers in the
community give their time to support the local
party, which can lead to helping the national
Hillhead Primary Protest

party. For instance, a grassroots movement can

lead to significant voter registration for a political
party, which in turn helps the state and national
parties.
Grass roots (n.)
1. Ordinary citizens, esp. as contrasted with the
leadership or elite.
2. The people inhabiting these areas, esp. as a
political, social, or economic group.
3. The origin or basis of something.

17

UNHCR staff 16 Days of Activism

political action
includes voting, signing
petitions, campaigning and
demonstrating

political activism
Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, or
direct social, political, economic, or environmental
change, or stasis. Various forms of activism range
from writing letters to newspapers or politicians,
political campaigning, economic activism such as
boycotts or preferentially patronising businesses,
rallies, street marches, strikes, sit-ins, and
hunger strikes. Research is beginning to explore
how activist groups in the United States and
Canada are using social media to facilitate civic
engagement and collective action.

18

digital activism
Digital media has transformed the ways in which
many citizens around the world engage in politics,
and there are a growing number of occasions
where the internet, social media, and information
infrastructure seems to play an important role
in the evolution of non-violent conflicts. Some
argue that the new media environment supports
democratization and peace-building efforts,
while others argue the opposite. Examples include
online petitions and campaigning, for example by
organisarions such as 38 Degrees or Avaaz.

Above is a picture of members of the online

activist group Anonymous. Anonymous (used as
a mass noun) is a loosely associated international
network of activist and hacktivist entities. A website
nominally associated with the group describes it
as an internet gathering with a very loose and
decentralized command structure that operates
on ideas rather than directives In 2012, Time called
Anonymous one of the 100 most influential people
in the world.

19

The referendum on scottish

independence was a vote on
whether scotland should
secede from the UK
ola

devo max

case

studies

The scottish question

About 48 hours before the referendum, David

Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg promised
extensive new devo max powers for the Scottish
parliament if there was a no vote, giving Scotland full
fiscal autonomy.

On 18 September 2014 a referendum on Scottish

independence took place in Scotland. The
independence referendum question, which voters
answered with Yes or No, was Should Scotland
be an independent country?

The independence campaign was driven in large

part by the Scottish National Party, particularly the First
Minister Alex Salmond. Salmond has since retired as
leader of the SNP, with Nicola Sturgeon, his deputy,
stepping in to replace him.

Since the no vote in the Scottish referendum, little has

been heard from Westminster about the matter.

The No side won, with 2,001,926 (55.3%) voting

against independence and 1,617,989 (44.7%) voting in
favour. The turnout of 84.6% was the highest recorded
for an election or referendum in the United Kingdom
since the introduction of universal suffrage.

Key issues of concern for those wishing to leave the

union were the Trident nuclear programme, fears of NHS
privatisation and a feeling of under-representation for
Scottish people in Westminster.

20

21

The 67% of the public say politicians dont understand the daily lives of people like me.

political
The public
continue to
feel relatively
powerless
in the political

engagement

31% of the public agree that when people like me get involved in politics, they really
can change the way that the UK is run.

According to the annual statistical report of an

independent research organisation*, public declares
that exactly 50% are very or fairly interested in politics.
Distrust towards politicians and lack of understanding
of daily life problems is a common feeling among the
respondents (67%). There is a visible desire to be involved
in decision-making process both on local and national
level that outpaces the personal sense of efficacy and
influence. This feeling of influence on a local level is twice
as much as on the national level. The report also presents
detailed analysis of demographic groups. Members of
upper and middle social classes have almost twice the
interest in politics and desire to be involved than working
and non-working class. Also, women declare to be less
interested in politics than men but they wish to have
greater influence, especially on a local level.

Contacting an elected representative is the action that most members of the public (51%)
say they would be prepared to do if they felt strongly enough about an issue, even more
so than voting (46%).

FEELING OF REAL INFLUENCE

DESIRE TO BE INVOLVED

process.

Very/ fairly interested

Interest in politics
by demographic groups.

Feel involved in local

decision-making

Feel involved in national

decision-making

Want involvement in
local decision-making

Based on NRS social grades classification:

* From Audit of Political Engagement 11 by The Hansard Society, 2014 report,
based on 1,000-2,000 GB adults.

22

A - upper middle class

C2 - skilled working class

B - middle class
D - working class

C1- lower middle class

E - non working

23

Want involvement in
national decision-making

political

inspirations

During our desk research we encountered many inspirational projects and

viewpoints from political, artistic and technological fields. We observed
an increasing tendency towards open-source movements in politics that
enable citizen to take part in the decision-making process and encourage
governments to share data using technology. We decided to present here six
case studies that we found most interesting and relevant to our project.

Where people are respected as individuals and trusted in their

shared commitment, they can come together.
Australia 2020 summit,
after Scotland No Matter What by Jane-Frances Kelly

We have to accept the fact that top-down hierarchy is no

longer working and it wont ever work again.
Citizenville, Gavin Newsom

24

Project by Christian Nold for

a Dannish town Hedehusen.
It was designed to bring
local people and local
political entities together
based on emotions, personal
perceptions as well as
environmental pollution data.
It gathers data from small
wearable and street sensors
and brings it to a large town
level display.

Citizenville a book written by

Californian Governor Gavin
Newsom, formerly the mayor
of super-wired San Francisco. It
describes how ordinary citizens
can use new digital tools
to dissolve political gridlock
and transform American
democracy.

Future City Glasgow is an

ambitious programme which will
demonstrate how technology
can make life in the city smarter,
safer and more sustainable.
Projects will address issues
such as health, safety and
sustainability through the use of
open data, apps, portals and
citizen science mapping.

A national convention to "help

shape a long term strategy for the
nation's future". Participants were
8 000 self-nominated or proposed
Australians, diverse demographically.
The event uncovered considerable
public appetite for involvement in
policy discussions. The result was
animated, unstoppable discussion.

25

This is an attempt to create

a new kind of politics. It is
an example of open-source
governance philosophy which
advocates the application
of the open source and
open content movements
to democratic principles in
order to enable any interested
citizen to add to the creation
of policy, as with a wiki
document.

Common Weal are a left-wing

think tank who aim to create
a future in which politics puts
all of us first. It seeks to get
us working together for the
benefit of each other, not
working against each other for
the benefit of a few. It believes
government should reflect the
will of the people, not the will
of the money markets.

disobedient objects

Most of the theories about what engages people are well

grounded in the business field. We adapted these to create
six areas that stimulate political engagement.

At the beginning of October some of us had an

opportunity to visit the Disobedient Objects exhibition
at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Not more
than a month after, Catherine Flood, the V&A curator,
came to GSA to have a talk about the Disobedient
Objects in relation to the ongoing Cuban Revolution
poster exhibition in the GSAs Reid Building. This gave us
a new light on the importance of objects in the context
of the social movements and activism that can be a
great source of inspiration.
The exhibition explores objects of art and design
from around the world that have been created by
participants of the grassroots social movements as tools
of social change. Objects displayed are mostly made
by non-professional makers from easily accessible
materials. Some of them use new technologies.
Makers of the Disobedient Objects question the rules,
undermine the system, show its absurdity.

There is no such a thing as single-issue struggle,

because we do not live single-issue lives.
Our struggles are particular, but we are not alone.
Audre Lorde, Learning from the 60s, 1982

To see more reflections about the exhibition, see our blog innovatepolitics.wordpress.com

What engages people?

People want to be
a part of something
useful, valuable, and
bigger than themselves.

Human beings want

to feel connected to
other people. Make
people feel a personal
connection.

Feeling that they are

part of shared vision
and destiny. They like
to know where they are
going.

People want to be
around
those
who
believe in their potential
and give them any
necessary support.

People have ideas, and

theyd like to share them.
The process of asking
will engage people in
powerful ways.

People want to know

what is expected of them
and what behaviours are
valued. They want be
recognised as individuals.

27

Adapted
from
What
Engages People by Nexus
(www.nexus-ww.com)

ethnography

workshop

focus questions
As part of a Design Ethnography Workshop we took
with Brian Loranger in Week 3, we reframed our
research into three main focus questions. (mapped
above)

As part of the workshop, we also formulated our

interview questions for our various experts, keeping
these as broad as possible in order to allow the
stories to emerge.

The questions presented here are the final ones that

we addressed, during our research these changed and
evolved to reflect our understanding of both the
brief and the context in which we answered it.

Expert questions included:

What is your passion?
How do you see this country in 25 years?
How do you see the relationship between your
expertise and politics?

29

identifying

stakeholders

stakeholders
We defined our stakeholders at this early stage
as anyone implicated in the brief, and organised
them according to our understanding of the
political spectrum.
These included primary stakeholders such as
politicians and the voting public, as well as
everyone in between. We showed this within our
stakeholder maps as political stakeholders on
the one side, general public on the other, with
communicators (media), academics (social and

30

political scientists), and technologists bridging the

gap between them.
We intend that our project focus on making direct
connections between the two ends of the spectrum,
using expertise gleaned from our secondary
stakeholders. Throughout the rest of our research we
refer to these as our Experts.

politics

A lot of people individually

councillor

might be concerned about

Martha Wardrop is a Scottish Green Party member

and has been the Councillor for Hillhead since May
2012. She studied Politics at Strathclyde University,
and then worked as a volunteer coordinator after
graduation.

something and they feel quite

The interview took place at a cafe on Woodlands

Road. The councillor spoke about her path to political
action, and how when she was politically motivated
by the things that were going on when she was a
student at Strathclyde. Through that, she got involved
in community action, which led to her current role as a
councillor.
Her work ranges from the small individual to
Glasgow-wide issues. She has a very strong green
agenda, her projects range from local street clean
ups in Hillhead, cycling infrastructure, information and
connection within communities, to mandatory carbon
neutral policies for new business in the Clyde area.
She does frequent Q&As within the community, and
joins up people with similar issues in order that they
can contact the local council as a group in order to
get things done shes found that local issues tend
to motivate connected people to solve problems
within the communities, which in turn leads to greater
effectiveness and engagement.

isolated. Bring people together

and hopefully they can support
each other...

We have lots of people

activist

going out into spaces and

Activist and community development organiser for

Commonweal, previously worked in digital media at
38 Degrees. She is also an active campaigner for the
radical independence movement.

making local connections

The interview was a fairly informal one at the Saramago

Cafe in the CCA. Kerri is from Scotland but moved to
London 10 years ago, and came back to campaign
for an independent Scotland with Commonweal.
Commonweal are a Left Wing think tank, whose
objectives seem to be the same as our own project:
engage more people in politics. Pre-referendum they
were focused on how to create effective policies for an
independent Scotland, however since then while the
focus has been lost, there has been a surge of interest
that is so far undirected.

and meeting up on a
regular basis.

Kerris own vision for the future gives citizens control over
their own lives, and their countrys destiny. She doesnt
think technology has much of a part to play in politics,
pointing out that the representation of the Scottish
public on the internet during the referendum was highly
misleading, and that there are many people who are
politically active in Scotland who do not have access
to, or even know how to use, the internet.

32

33

society

If there was going

social theorist

to be more genuine

Professor of Citizenship and Social Theory at the

University of Glasgow. His recent research focuses
on the citizenship of children in Scotland.

civic engagement it

We met Prof. Lockyer at the Glasgow University. He

started with reflections on what actually does being
an active citizen mean. He pointed out that civic
engagement can be considered as all personal
activities that we do voluntary. Being an active citizen
is not only a matter of exercising a vote, but also an
obligation to be informed about public matters.

would need to be on the

grassroots level to be a
significant change.

Hence, improving political literacy and debate from

young age is an important aspect, especially in the
context of the recent referendum when the voting
age limit was lowered to 16. He emphasised that the
referendum was a unique example of an accepted
sovereignty of the people. Despite the results, Yes
voters gained more confidence as their voice has been
listened to once and will be again in the future.
The professor suggested more referendums as one of
the ways of devolving more power to people over their
local concerns. When answering a question about
his understanding of a community, he referred to the
Aristotles thought that it is the family which lies at the
very core of this concept.

Big referendums with

sociologist

different cultural group on

Sociologist, Lecturer in Physical & Sport Education,

School of Education, Theology and Leadership, St.
Marys University

local and national levels give

Stuarts research primary focus lies on a crossover

between sport, politics and sociology. As a Scottish
person living in London, he closely examined the
Glasgow XX Commonwealth Games and the
Referendum from a sociological perspective. During our
Skype interview, he commented on a huge excitement
about the idea of the independent Scotland.
However, he expressed doubts whether that
momentum will last long. According to Stuart, the
unprecedentedly high turnout was a result of people
feeling that they got control, some form of meaningful
representation. He emphasized that the referendum
was more about an ideal rather than any political party
and that is what made it different. He referred to a Swiss
model of regular referendums, where people feel more
engaged by the issue they can influence directly.
As a conclusion, Stuart described how he sees an
ideal society: equal distribution of wealth, responsible
development and equal resources: it is all about
people living happily in their environment.

34

35

back the sense of control and

influence.

technology

You follow people

data scientist
Research Data Scientist at Urban Big Data Centre,
author of the Twitter and the Independence
Referendum visualisation.

you like so you end up

reinforcing your own

We met Michael in his office at the Urban Big Data Centre.

Michaels main area of interest lies in facilitating the use of
new technologies in social science research. We started
with reflections about the role of technology in stimulating
participation in the recent referendum.

opinion because you follow

Michael pointed out that modern social media broadens

sources of information that people use to make up
their minds, however, in contrast to traditional media,
individuals usually look for evidence to back up their own
views. He suggested possible use of phone application
that would let people choose their preferences and issues
that are important to them, specific to a local community,
rather than spending thousands of pounds on archaic
telephone polling and registration.

the people who already

have your opinion.

He emphasised the importance of respecting privacy

in his projects. He noticed that when people recognise
the benefits to the wider public, they are more positive
about contributing and give away a bit of their privacy
for this purpose. Michael concluded with a hope that
technology can stimulate more civic engagement and
sense of neighborhood.

So its not simply going

iot expert & writer

Teacher and writer. The Internet of Things expert,
founder of the Internet of Things Council - an agency
for promoting technological and social change.

to the local with the full

Rob is a co-author of the book Internet of People that

caught our attention during the desk research phase. In a
fascinating and in-depth Skype interview, we touched on
many important points that served as a basis for our later
considerations.

power of network.

Rob advocates devolution of power and manufacturing to

a local level facilitated with the network and technology.
Rob mentioned that in an ideal situation, we would a good
balance between the system that we can monitor plus a lot
of local agency which can be an alternative to the current
situation. Rob several times emphasized the importance
of transparency in todays world. According to him, we
would have already lost our privacy as people and so the
institutions should become totally transparent too. We need to
renegotiate our relationship with the institutions and we need
a new decision-making model based on real time objective
data stream followed by discussion.
Concluding, we reflected on the importance of solidarity in this
new technological and political model do we want smart
society for everybody or only for those who can afford it?

36

back to the local. Its going

37

media

data scientist
Freelance radio journalist and writer. She has rich
experience in reporting political issues and focuses
on social issues for the long term in the UK and
Middle East.

The role of the media is

political columnist

to de-jargonise politics...

Columnist at The Herald, and political columnist for

The Scotsman during the referendum. Previously a
leader writer, foreign editor and sub-editor for other
newspapers around the country.

make it accessible

The interview took place in the canteen in the

Reid Building. Shiona was chatty relaxed and
informal, she gave a very unbiased view on the
independence referendum and her experiences
covering it. She comes from a law background
and explained the Offcom regulations around
media coverage, so was dismissive of any idea of
broadcast media bias during the indy ref, showing
us specific examples of how her work had to give
equal airtime to both sides.

A lot of politics is
boring, but we the need
people who worry

The interview took place in the cafe in the

basement of a bookshop on Sauchiehall Street.
Alison is well-spoken and knowledgeable, she has
been in the media for a long time and believes that
newspapers are here to stay. Apparently during the
referendum newspaper sales soared as many more
people picked up a paper for their news.

about things like

council tax.

She spoke of the referendum as an explicitly political

issue rather than a social movement, and she
believes that more people are moving towards
traditional forms of politics since the referendum.
Alison also thinks that there will be a return to
traditional forms of politics in the future by everyone,
as traditional politics may change but will never
disappear.

Touching on new/social media and how it had

changed her medium, Shiona spoke about how
flexible and responsive media needs to be now
that so many people are reporting on the issues
and things around them via social media. She
uses Twitter quite extensively, both personally and
professionally, and thinks its a great resource for
news, but that there will always be space for radio
and print media.

38

39

people

concerned people
We designed a range of engagement tools that
we used to gather evidence and information from
the general public about the ways in which they
currently interact with politics. The brand that we
created was deliberately warm and welcoming,
unlike a lot of political design, which can seem
alienating or boring to some people.

Engagement tools
40

41

What worked?

Postcards

A broad scattergun approach,

which meant that we got a range
of responses from people of various
backgrounds and ages

The postcards were used as an engagement tool to

gather anonymous qualitative data from members
of the general public. The questions allowed
participants to express themselves freely through
written word or illustrations when answering one of the
single question postcards. The five question postcards
produced answers directed on a more local level
and closer to home, while still providing useful insights
into the publics perception on wider political issues.

What didnt?
Some people misunderstood the
exercise, and some people thought
we were giving out postcards and
helped themselves

The aim of the postcards were to extract as much

insightful as well as creative answers as possible using
questions, which got participants to consider their
own idea of a country, community, technology and
political ideas.

42

43

60+

Some of
them

2.25%

survey

46-60

55.41%

4.49%

26-35
49.44%

Not
applicable

Lots of responses from a large

number of people in a short amount
of time

What didnt?
Limited to people already within our
networks so a lot of similar answers and
limited age range

9.68%

29.79%

9.57%

Not
registered

Both active
and aware

24.42%

Yes

48.28%

Not relevant
to my political
system

1.15%

Effect political
change?

Which of the
following
do you do?

No

43.68%
Dont know
what it means

8.51%

6.90%

Scottish
Parliament
Election?
European
Election?

Yes - 31.82%
No - 22.73%
Not Eligible - 35.23%
Not Registered - 10.23%

Attend meetings about

issues that I care about:
Usually - 7.59%
Sometimes - 40.51%
Never - 51.90%

Yes - 49.45%
No - 36.26%
Not Eligible - 6.59%
Not Registered - 7.69%

General
Election?

Attend demonstrations about

issues that I care about:
Usually - 6.49%
Sometimes - 38.96%
Never - 58.44%

Yes - 77.42%
No - 13.98%
Not Eligible - 4.30%
Not Registered - 4.30%

Donate money to issues that I

care about:

Yes - 77.66%

Usually - 15.19%
Sometimes - 56.96%
Never - 29.11%

No - 14.89%
Local
Election? Not Eligible - 3.19%

Not Registered - 4.26%

44

Do you feel
like you
understand
how to:

95 People

Have you
ever voted
in one of
these
elections

No

2.33%

Survey
Results

Scottish
Independence
Referendum?

52.13%

Dont know
what it means

59.30%

Politically
aware
or active?

Did you
vote in
the recent

Yes

Not
eligible

Aware but
not active

Do you
trust
politicians?

How old
are you?

Are you
registered
to vote?

No

1.08%

No

37.08%

Yes

What worked?

6.74%

44.59%

80.65%

Not
eligible

1.35%

19-25

8.60%

The online survey provided both quantitative and

qualitative data from just under one hundred participants.
The quantitative data (shown across) provided the types
of age groups answering the survey which tended to be
relatively young, between nineteen and thirty five. Most
did not trust all politicians and just under half trusting none
of them. Most participants considered themselves political
aware but not active with a quarter who see themselves
as both aware and active. Roughly just under half felt
that they understand how to effect political change with
most others feeling they do not. The qualitative data from
whether the participants trusted politicians produced
a majority of negative answers towards politicians.
The answers produced the impression that politics was
out of touch and incapable of displaying honesty.
The question relating to who the participants actually
trusted was commonly closer to home and the small/
closer community networks they form. Some participants
expressed some rich ideas of effecting political change
that tended to point towards a grassroots level change.

Yes

36-45

45

Sign petitions about issues

thatI care about:
Usually - 39.24%
Sometimes - 54.43%
Never - 6.33%

What worked?

workshop

Getting to observe people in a relaxed

environment where they naturally socialise and discuss their lives and the things
that concerned them, people from one
culture but a wide range of backgrounds

To run the workshop, we were invited to join a

meeting of a Polish Society in Glasgow in the
traditional Sikorski Polish Club at Parkgrove Terrace
existing from the 1960. Initially, the meeting was held
by the younger members of the society. However,
as the workshop went on, more observers of
different ages and backgrounds joined the activity.
Participants divided themselves in three groups: one
entirely male, one with majority of female participants
and one created out of middle-aged random
observers who decided to join the game.
At the beginning of the activity, the groups were
asked to create their political parties. They could
choose their main areas of focus, write their
manifesto and draw their leader and typical voters.
Given rather informal character of the meeting,
two out of three groups decided to approach the
task in a witty way, basing their political names and
manifesto around drinking culture.

However, once the group task was finished

and the participants were asked to present
their political parties, we observed that even
if the name and the manifesto started as a
joke idea, it provoked a serious and politically
relevant discussion while confronting it with other
participants. After presenting and discussing the
exercise on the forum, we naturally moved to a
more general discussion about politics. Everyone
was rather enthusiastic about the activity and
eager to discuss further. We managed to get
some interesting insights about the political
situation and attitudes in Poland. Participants
agreed that politics concerns most aspects of
our everyday lives: Overall, it was fascinating to
witness how initial fun game became a trigger
to a serious and realistic discussion about current
politics in an informal environment.

What didnt?
People were initially wary of discussing politics
in a social setting, but the game helped, and
often the participants used humour as a way of
expressing serious opinions
Would have been nice to try it with more than
one group, but time limitations didnt allow it

46

47

What worked?

observation

Getting to see politics in action, and listen to

people expressing political opinions. As these
are already politicised spaces, people are
much more ready to engage in discussion

Hillhead Primary

Grangemouth Fracking

An observation of a protest in front of Glasgow

city council building provided a great opportunity
to witness a higher level of political action since
the independence referendum. The protest over
the lack of classroom space at hillhead primary
school involved teachers, parents and children
who demonstrated an increased levels of political
engagement in their local community when
surrounding around a common issue.

An observation at Grangemouth Oil Refinery about

the recent announcements by INEO and the Scottish
Government. Falkirk already has an air pollution
problem, the worries by the local people were that
fracking could pollute the water supply. Speaking to
people, they seemed to think that despire the fact
that it would bring more jobs to the area they were
unwilling to deal with the environmental cost that the
shale gas extraction would bring.

The protest demonstrated the capability of a

community to organise themselves and actively
raise awareness for local political decision that they
did not support. This protest was conducted through
multiple channels from both an online petition and
local display of support around an issue.

People came from all over the UK to take part in the

protest, including Wales and Cheshire, which are
active anti-fracking protest sites. The focus was on
people before politics, with everyone welcome if
they were against fracking.

What didnt?
People too busy to talk sometimes
Not enough time to organise attendance at
more political events

48

49

define

50

Political education (Expers vs. citizens)

LONG-TERM POLICES

adbuctive sythesis uses both

inductive and deductive

Negative drivers for

positive results

What do we care about?

Lack of trust

POLITICIANS

Mechanisms
Access to
information

LOCAL VS. MACRO

Tensions

Grouping

'ANONYMOUS' PROTEST (Trust vs. Anonymity)

VS.
RESPONSIBILITY ISSUES

DESIRE
VS.
FEELING OF REAL INFLUENCE

Non-traditional-power

Ideal vs. Party politics

REFERENDUM

But loads of people joined

parties afterwards

Transparent

Language

GAP

What engages?

TRADITIONAL MEDIA
VS.
NEW TECHNOLOGY

CITIZENS

(POPULISM)

HUMAN NATURE

Reinforcing your opinion

(Selective Attention) from
broader range of sources

Powerless

ATTRACTIVENESS OF
SHORT-TERM SOLUTIONS

reasoning in order to formulate

solutions

VS.

(Selfishness, I want more never satisfied)

Language

CENTRALISATION
VS.
DECENTRALISATION

YOUNG PEOPLE
ENGAGEMENT

Forms of protest

Online to real world

Your voice being heard

once, can be heard again
Disillusion vs. Hope

synthesis workshop
The synthesis workshop with Ian Atkinson
provided the opportunity to start synthesising the
research data by thinking about the evidence
gathered and start summarising conclusions and
identifying insights.

synthesis

The method called abductive synthesis was used

to connect several pieces of evidence together
to begin to formulate tensions. The tensions
from the evidence forming insights allowed
several opportunities to emerge. A landscape of
opportunities was then mapped under various
categories before being placed on a dual
dimension map to identify their level of political
engagement and community involvement.

The analyse of data from the evidence wall was

deconstructed to then understand constituent
parts that produced several hypotheses, clues
and reasons to surface.

53

INFO

Community Involvement

Make
politicians
available

DISINTERESTED
& POWERFUL
Make politics
transparent

Redefine what
politics means
and it mechanisms

Connect people
with similar
concerns

Make space/
platform/
forums
for people

Facilitate trust
by removing
barrier between
communities

Provide
local and
global
forums

INTERESTED
& POWERLESS

People

Gap between
citizens &
government

GAP between
DESIRE to be

involved &

REAL
INFLUENCE

Map 1.

54

PEOPLE

are more easily

engaged

with (local)
issues

INFO

PEOPLE

PEOPLE
SHEAR ZONE

INTERACTION

PEOPLE

TECH

TECH

INFO

INFO

PEOPLE

PEOPLE
SHEAR ZONE

Map 3.

Map 2.

power maps

More attractive,
fun forms
of engagement

DISINTERESTED
& POWERLESS

TECH

SHEAR ZONE

SHEAR ZONE

Creating
common
ways of
communicating/
understanding
common
language

Informa tion

POWER

POLITICS

INTERESTED
& POWERFUL

TECH

INFO

Provide
information
in a more
accessible,
visual way

Redefine/recreate
political language
that explain issues in
an simple way

TECH

INNOVATION

Political Engagement

During the synthesis phase, an analysis of the research

results was done to then pick out key tensions from
the evidence. Once this was done a map of the
problem was generated, onto which insights were
placed.

Map 2
The above map shows two elements of the brief,
people and information. However neglects the other,
technology. This shows the extra layer via a Venn
Diagram structure. Each of the overlapping areas
between two circles (politics, innovation, interaction)
lead to the central focus, which is empowerment (=
agency + agenda).

Map 1
In the bottom left hand corner you have an individual
with no political agency / agenda, in the top right you
have many people cooperating with both agency
and agenda. The x axis represents the journey towards
political agenda (knowledge or information), and the
y axis represents the journey towards political agency
(organisation and cooperation). A power trajectory is
shown through the centre onto which the key concepts
are mapped.

Map 3
This was a Shear Diagram created in order to show how
each element of Map 2 must be balanced in order for
a concept to be effective.

55

STUART
WHIGHAM

ROB VAN
KRANENBURG

MICHAEL
COMERFORD

ALISON
ROWAT

Three stages of how to engage

SHIONA
MCCALLUM

MARTHA
WARDROP

people in politics are:

ANDREW
LOCKYER

- Make politics accessible

- make peoples voices heard

MAKE COUNCILS
MORE AWARE

POWER SHOULD
BE DEVOLVED /
POWER TO
COMMUNITIES

POLITICS SHOULD
BE MORE
TRANSPARENT

ELIMINATE
POLITICAL
LANGUAGE
BARRIER

SOCIAL MEDIA
(INTERNET /
NETWORKS)
TRIGGERING
ENGAGEMENT

MORE FREQUENT
REFERENDUMS

GRASSROOTS
LEVEL
(local issues)
SIGNIFICANT
CHANGE

- empower people
HEAR PEOPLES
CONCERNS

empowering people
MAKE POLITICS
ACCESSIBLE

MAKE PEOPLE'S
VOICES HEARD

PEOPLES SENSE
OF CONTROL
AND INFLUENCE

This map represents the three stages of how to engage

people into politics. Based on the evidence collected
from the experts interviews, the most important topics
were highlighted, which have been recurrent in the
several interviews that were conducted.
By connecting the different topics, three main ones
stood out that represent the three stages of how to
get people engaged with politics: The three stages of
empowering people in politics. In order to get people
engaged in politics, you should give them power. To
give them power you have to first of all make politics
accessible, then make their voices heard, and finally
by doing that people will start to feel that they have
control and influence in their own lives and within
society.

56

57

Secondary

Sociology
Technology
Public

Media
Po
liti
cs

e
tur
Fu

e
tur
Fu

Transpar
ency

Transpar
ency
er
Pow

gy
lo

ent
gem
nga
)E
is/
(D

Transpar
ency

Te
ch
no

Po
liti
cs

Te
ch
no

Ne
tw
ork
s

er
Pow

Community

Community
Ne
tw
ork
s

(Dis/)T
rust

Media

ent
gem
nga
)E
is/
(D

e
tur
Fu

(Dis/)T
rust

ty
cie
So

ty
cie
So

If there was going to be more

genuine civic engagement it would
need to be on the grassroots level to be
a significant change.

Media

Po
liti
cs

gy
lo

Ne
tw
ork
s

gy
lo

Media
e
tur
Fu

Community

ent
gem
nga
)E
is/
(D

A lot of people individually might be

concerned about something and they feel
quite isolated. Bring people together and
hopefully they can support each other...

Media

ety
oci

Po
liti
cs

Politics

er
Pow

Primary

Te
ch
no
(Dis/)T
rust

ty
cie
So

er
Pow

Community

Transpare
ncy

The role of the media is to dejargonise politics... make it accessible

gy
lo

Ne
tw
ork
s

Po
liti
cs

Media

ent
gem
nga
)E
is/
(D

Te
ch
no

Media

e
tur
Fu

e
tur
Fu

Po
liti
cs

(Dis/)T
rust

Transpare
ncy

These visual maps take the evidence from the primary

and secondary research done in the Discovery phase,
and turn them into key themes to be synthesised
into insights. Each circle shows a different part of the
research, including those from the expert interviews
and public engagement games and activities. Each of
the results were coded by a recurrent theme, and then
connections were mapped between each of these
themes based on evidence from the research.

The origins of the research where divided into the

following five areas: Politics, Media, Sociology,
Technology and Public.

The themes used to codify the research were as follows:

Community, Networks, (Dis/)Engagement, (Dis/)Trust,
Technology, Power, Transparency, Future, Media, Politics
and Society.

The key connections were between Community /

Engagement, and Trust / Transparency.

Once the connections had been mapped per

research phase (shown across), each was then
mapped onto the complete evidence map (shown
above) in order to pick out key areas of interest by
concentrations of connections.

er
Pow

gy
lo

Te
ch
no

ent
gem
nga
)E
is/
(D

(Dis/)T
rust

58

ent
gem
nga
)E
is/
(D

gy
lo

Ne
tw
ork
s

Ne
tw
ork
s

So its not simply going back to the

local. Its going to the local with the
full power of network.

Community

Community

Transpar
ency

ty
cie
So

ty
cie
So

er
Pow

evidence maps

I trust my family, because I know

them and know what to expect from
them... I dont trust politicians.

59

Te
ch
no

(Dis/)T
rust

key
Gap between
politicians
and citizens

They have only limited view

on common peoples problems.
Anonymous, survey

Do you trust politicians?

Some of them
(55.41%)

Yes (1.35%)

No (44.59%)

Gap between
desire to be involved
& real influence

The desire to be involved in

decision-making continues to
outpace the personal sense
of efficacy and influence
Audit of Political Engagement

A lot of people individually might

be concerned about something
and they feel quite isolated.
Martha Wardrop, Councillor

60

People are more

easily engaged
with (local) issues

Politics is our life

Member of Workshop Game

If there was going to be more

civic engagement it would
need to be on the grass root level
to be a significant change.
Prof. Andrew Lockyer, GU

key insights
Drawing from both the desk and field research, which
were synthesised in several maps, three main insights
were taken forward to the Development Phase. It took
many discussions to appropriately phrase each of them
in order to embrace the most important findings from
the extensive research done.

It was also discovered that people care more about

specific issues on different levels, yet they engage more
easily when these issue directly concern them or their
surrounding, hence the last insight has the word local
in brackets.
The research naturally led us down the path of
grassroots movements, which are local issues that then
feed into wider politics.

Since politics is such a broad and abstract topic, the

Define Phase was used to narrow down the area of
interest and identify gaps that prevent people from
engaging in civic sphere (Gap between the politicians
and citizens; Gap between desire to be involved and
real influence).

Having identified the three main insights, it was time to

move to the Development Phase.

61

Develop

62

63

we used our three key insights

to generate over 50 concept
drawings, which then became
our key concepts

ideation
The ideation phase was at the beginning of our
concept development, which involved using our
key insights along with particular pieces of evidence
to create a range of what if scenarios with a
concept aiming to resolve them. The range of
concepts allowed us to identify the most promising
ideas before grouping them together.

ideation

This then lead to the identifying five key

concepts that we would take forward for further
development.

The process of grouping similar concepts together

provided a means of further discovery during our
ideation phase, providing the opportunity to identify
elements of each that could potentially be merged
to complement one another.

65

keyconcepts
about immediate issues and people

could better integrate people into

munities?

concept 1

Key Insight

People are more engaged by (local)

issues.

What if?

concept 2

The Community Dashboard

...we could better connect communities?

The concept Community Dashboard aims to allow

members of the community the means to better
communicate with the wider network within and
out with their own community. The Community
Dashboard is a multi functional device providing
a service that allows a user to see information on
their own home that could be from the energy
they are using, to keeping records on food waste.
The user has the ability to share tasks with their
neighbours and help create a balance of local
resources in their community. The service can help
people coordinate community action that could
lead to political change in their local area.

66

Tag Your City

Key Insight

Gap between politicians and citizens,

Gap between political desire and power,
People care more about (local) issues.

What if?

...the city could become a forum to

share issues?

The service Tag Your City is a platform that allows

people to voice their concerns on a public level
for everyone to see. The service is a way of tagging
issues around the physical city that is then displayed
on the virtual city. The service allows people the
means of tagging local and wider political issues
both physically and virtually. The aim of the service
is to allow people to proliferate political issues as a
means fostering debate both locally and within the
wider political sphere. The automatic relay of tags
to the council would grant them the ability to see
issues of growing concern and respond to them.

67

concept 3

concept 4

Robot Avatars

Key Insight

The Robot Avatars is a service that allows its users to

physically attended protests from far away through
a virtual connection. The Robot Avatars act as
surrogates for a user opening a portal to another
part of the world. The display of live information
seen through the Robot Avatar allows the user the
ability to feel part of the demonstration while having
access to a web of information that is within the
Robot Avatars environment. The form of the Robot
Avatars was an issue pending further discussion and
development.

Gap between political desire and power,

People care more about (local) issues.

What if?

...You could participate in any political

action instead of relying on media.
68

Pop-Up Spaces

Key Insight

Gap between politicians and citizens,

Gap between political desire and power,
People care more about (local) issues.

What if?

...the city could become a forum to

share issues?

Pop-Up Spaces is a service that provides safe

and open spaces for political discussion. These
Pop-Up Spaces resemble the appearance of a
virtual environment within a bubble. The virtual
environment would display suggestions of political
ideas both locally and nationally to encourage
discussion and debate. The service would allow the
use of Pop-Up Spaces as an education tool to teach
people from all ages the meaning of politics and
how much it influences their daily lives.

69

concept 5

Key Insight

Gap between politicians and citizens,

Gap between political desire and power.

What if?

final concept

Interactive Walls

..you could connect/collect local issues to

a physical visual space?

The Interactive Walls is a service that provides a

platform for people to engage with political discourse in and around their local areas. The service
has various touch-points that provide people with
the capability to interact and voice their concerns
using either public community interactive displays
or mobile devices. The display of collected and
contributed community information would feed
through to a display at George Square close to
the council headquarters. The content generated
by people in your local area would provide others
with insight into emerging issues and common concerns in your local area.

70

The final concept was a combination of both

the Community Dashboard and Tag Your City
concepts renaming it Community Window. The
decision to combine the two concepts was to
provide the ability to tag issues in your area as
part of a function of the Community Dashboard.
The further developments of this concept lead
to mapping out more functions of its service.
This allowed links to be created between the
social and practical functions of the service.

When initially mapping out the service for concept,

the framework created for the levels of networks
and levels of participation began to become identified with specific functions. The level of networks
related to the spectrum of interaction with the environment. The level of participation linked to amount
of engagement from people using the service. This
framework was used to provide an initial understanding to the structure of the developing concept.

71

deliver

72

Mado is a service that

allows you to connect with
your local community to
address issues

introducing mado
Mado means window, because this is your window
on your community. Mado increases transparency,
allows you to observe and learn, view information
and also provides an opportunity for you to act on
the issues that you care about.

For the council it provides a platform for immediate

interaction with communities, and a feedback tool
that can be used to improve public services.
Mado is a service that is provided in cooperation
with city council and can be used voluntary by
those citizen that wish to apply for it.

75

Share political
infomation with
friends
Share community
resources

Tag problems in your

area on the move

Use different
language profiles

Take your profile

with you when you
move

Coordinate
community action
Browse and
tag issues
anonymously

Communicate
easily with your
local council

introducing mado
Mado is both a service and a tool, allowing you to
make the best of the community in which you live.
Primary functions of Mado allow the user to:
Share community resources
Tag problems or issues in the city to speed up
response times
Better communicate directly with the local
council and coordinate community action.

Secondary functions allow the user to:

77

Share political information with friends

Use different language profiles
Browse and tag in incognito mode
Take their profile with them when they move

co-motics
Co is for

Mado is an open platform on which users create

and own content. We define comotics as the
service that can be accessed using the Mado
interface, but can also be accessed online or via
the Mado app on your device.

community
coordinate
collaborate

Comotics is built on home domotic infrastructure,

and allows coordination of resource usage and
community network-building within neighbourhood

cooperate
78

hubs via home automation technology. Comotics

exists in future spaces in order to promote wellbeing
and civic empowerment for people living in
metropolitan areas.
Domotics revolutionises the way we live in our
homes; comotics will revolutionise the way in which
we live in our world.

79

GLOBAL

POLITICAL POWER

Mado creates
networks that enable
grassroots action
within communities

Traditional politics consists of top-down power

structures imposed by governments and elected
officials, shown in the image above as a circle with a
power line moving from the global (outside) through
to the national, regional, and local scale. From our
research we found that empowering and informing
people at the local level (centre) led to a greater
level of political engagement through every level,
we show this as a power line moving outwards from
people at the centre to the regional, national and
global scales.

Mado puts people at the centre by creating

local networks, letting grassroots communities
communicate with each other about their concerns,
as well as their council and government. As shown
through our research, communities are the building
blocks of society. Mado creates a future in which
communities shape themselves, empowering citizens
to take ownership of the political landscapes in
which they exist.

81

user

journey 1 - Tagging an idea

agnes
Dunworth, 68
retired schoolteacher

Community Spirit is
very important.

Idea

Evidence

Send to
Mado

Tag in app

Check if new

No
Yes

Share idea

service blueprint 1
To contextualise Mado and the system behind it,
three personas have been created from different
age groups and backgrounds. Their journey
demonstrates three different uses of Mado ranging
from very local community level to a wider national
and international scope.
Each action is connected with a touchpoint within
the service and is deconstructed to show the flow
through different levels (individual, local, council/
governmental/global), with the individual level as a
starting point in every of the three scenarios.

Network
response
Response
Level

Agnes likes to garden, and she does not have a

garden in her building that she can use. In her
journey, she spots a disused piece of land that
she thinks will make a lovely garden and tags it
using ther Mado app. Once done, this gets shared
in her local network and if enough people like the
idea it gets escalated to the council for planning
permission. These are her touchpoints.

Coordination
of actions

Garden
monitoring

Low
High

Council
notied

Feedback
Decision

Tagging

Sharing

Motivation
Line

+
82

Display in
local network

Organising
space
clean up

83

Feedback

Priority
Ladder

Feedback

Coordination

Control

user

journey 2 - Tagging a problem

gary
McLaren, 35
Engineer

Influence starts at a local and

regional level by being organised
with the grassroots...

Issue

Evidence

Check if new

No
Yes

Take action
Participate

Tag in app
Profiled

Send to
Mado

Organise
Petition
Protest
Local MP

Incognito

Coordination
of actions

Event

Share event

service blueprint 2

Response
Level

Gary has a wife and a young child, and is very

interested in environmental issues. In his journey
he sees several trees being cut down and when
trying to tag it on Mado he discovers that this has
been going on all over the area in way of building
a new road and has many tags already. Mado
offers him the option to take action, and he chooses
to organise a protest. Due to the high turnout for
the protest against the building of the road, the
issue gets escalated to council and then on to
government level. These are his touchpoints with the
service.

Social
consultation

Low
High

Display in
network

Council
notified

Tagging

Reacting

Motivation
Line

+
84

85

Government
notified

Project
re-assessment

Feedback

Priority
Ladder

Consulting

Feedback

Coordination

user

journey 3 - New user

MEIMEI
HAN, 21
student

It can be difficult to organise

with people in an area if you
are new there.

Touch with
hand

Touch with
personal device

Activate

Register

Collect
Data

Personalise

No
Yes

Participate
Analyse
interests

Coordinate

Suggest local
activities
and groups

service blueprint 2
MeiMei is new to the area and is interested in
campaigning and raising awareness of the Hong
Kong pro-democracy campaign as it is something
she is very interested in and has friends taking part
in. In order to find out what is already happening
in her area, she registers her interests on Mado and
gets recommendations for groups where she can
share her interests and concerns with likeminded
people.

Registration
Motivation
Line

+
86

87

Interest Matching

Personalisation

Coordination

The Mado comotics service

can be accessed using a
home or portable device,
or the mado product

Domotics

Environmental

(comotics)

technology map
Users can connect to Mado through their mobile
application to tag and evidence issues of concern
or directly at their homes to interact with the
content. Mado creates a network with other similar
devices to share content with fellow users. Issues of
higher response rate or importance are redirected
to a responsible council/institutional department
connected to the network.

Working as a device within the comotics system,

Mado has potential to connect with the networked
objects of the domotics system and help balance
resources of a household and ultimately of the local
area. Mado can enhance and coordinate local
activities such as community gardens or pollution
control by monitoring local environment using
external sensor network within the Internet of Things.

89

HOME

VIEW TAG

EXPAND

PERSONALISE

ZOOM

VIEW TAG

TAKE ACTION

TAG

mado interaction
Mado is an interactive device that uses touch
screen, gesture and speech recognition technology
to maximise accessibility and the user convenience.
When the device is wall mounted it can allow a
user to freely interact with the mado interface using
gesture controls. This allows the user to make quick
and decisive interactions on the go.

Mado enables
interaction and
participation with

initiate speech recognition interaction following

several commands the user may wish to follow.
The devices portable capability allows the user
to interact with the interface using touch screen
gestures when moving around their home.

When combined with speech recognition the user

can combine multiple interchangeable interactions.
The device name Mado is the keyword used to

community action
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the Round shape is

inclusive and politically
stable, and allows you to
focus in and out

branding. why round?

From political perspective, round shape has been
always considered to be inclusive. It does not favour
any of the sides. It is evident in political symbolism, for
example, round table discussion where every person
has equal rights to participate.
From an ergonomic perspective: because your eyes
are round. Because the world is round. Because
round is a familiar, organic shape. Because it enables
to intuitively zoom in and out, visualising the levels of

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engagement, from issues of your biggest concern in

the middle to the ones that present the national or
global context, like a lens.
This design is for a future society, and through
research it became evident that industry leaders
(including Toshiba) are investing in round screen
technologies and new user interfaces to overcome
the technical limitations that this shape causes today.

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MADO builds community

networks as a platform
for grassroots political
action and engagement

conclusion
The recent Referendum on Scottish Independence
was a fascinating case study as it provided the
opportunity to look at what motivated sections of
the population who are not normally political to
engage with politics. However what was found in
most cases was that people are generally more
motivated by specific issues that relate to their
particular concerns, and it was through these
networks that people were exposed to increased
political information and motivation.

This project took us on a route that on first glance

may not seem to be overtly political, however
through our research we found that the politics can
include a variety of different things that people
encounter in their daily lives, and that the best way
to politically engage and motivate people was
to listen to what they cared about, and create
networks that facilitated discussion about these
things.

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Traditional politics sees communities and democracy

as separate entities, however the new model of
grassroots politics that was encountered as part of
the research creates communities first, and uses
these as the building blocks of society. Society is
a pre-requisite to any sort of political system, and
the creation of networks that facilitate discussion
and discourse of any kind within a local community
also creates a platform for political interaction on a
variety of levels.

Mado is a means to create these networks in

metropolitan spaces, where daily encounters
can sometimes be limited to entirely commercial
transactions.
By creating these networks, Mado creates spaces
for community interactions, which lead to further
network-building, which leads to political action.

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acknowledgements
response
Studio Leaders
Elio Caccavale
Mil Stricevic

Workshop Leaders
Emma Murphy (Research Methods)
Iain Aitchison (Synthesis Workshop)
Brian Loranger (Ethnography Workshop)

Tutors
Irene Bell, Gordon Hush, Brian Dixon, Ian Grout,
Ian Reid and Stuart Bailey

Studio Development
Roy Shearer (Interactive Prototypes)
Rachael Sleight (Product Development)

Visting Tutors
Raoul Rickenberg (Parsons School of Design)
Kenta Ono (Chiba University)

And everyone who participated in our

field research

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