Violent Compassions: Humanitarian Design and the Politics of Borders

摘要

Through the past five years, and specifically since the spring and summer of 2015 referred to by the Western media as "the refugee crisis," a flood of new humanitarian design competitions, projects, think tanks, exhibitions, panels, and conferences have addressed "refugeehood" as a timely subject for design. From Silicon Valley start-ups and other entrepreneurial efforts to academic initiatives, designers and design researchers have mobilized their skills, knowledge, and creativity to address the urgent issue of displaced individuals and communities. Some of these projects, such as product and interaction design solutions, adopt a technocratic, universal approach; meanwhile, others involve social design initiatives that purport to take a more collaborative and long-term approach. Both of these types of projects, although different in method and outcomes tend to be understood as caring for the other under the banner of "making a difference" and "turning crisis into an opportunity." As a result, they are frequently acknowledged by professionals, entrepreneurs, citizens, and academics to be possible interventions when political projects fail or are simply ignored. Most of these initiatives come from a sense of emergency-a sense of crisis that "something must be done" to address the suffering of human beings on the move. They also are derived from a sense of compassion for "the other" in the name of universal humanity-a sense of caring for someone who is in a relatively (more) vulnerable condition.