We started into the course with a quick game--one that introduced their value to anthropology and cultural studies. [[The game]] was based on "parsley," an amusing table-top version of early rpg video games.
We briefly looked at the growth of social design. Ambiguous to its core, [["social design"]] can mean many things--more or less social, more or less equitable.
We examined a series of examples of "social design" and critiqued the ways they implicitly legitimate the inequalities they address. Out of this, we introduced a quick typology of social design's politics: [[palliative]], reform and revolutionary.
Anthropology and cultural studies engage design precisely for its revolutionary potentials. In a design anthropology, we hope to bring together [[politics and practice]]. Our first activity is on game design, and students are tasked with developing a game that speaks to challenges of doing anthropology or cultural studies in the current political climate. The template for the game--as well as a number of other resources--are available at AnthropologyCon. https://anthropologycon.org/There are multiple types of <<social design>> out there. Double-click this passage to edit it.Double-click this passage to edit it.