51-621 Designing Civic Conversations
12 units, Carnegie Mellon University
This course centers on the creative exploration and design of the process of resident feedback in governmental systems. Students will consider ways that thoughtful conversation can be evoked, the role of activism in public conversations, how to foreground residents voices that are typically less present in civic conversations, and how to engage city stakeholders to construct a public around an issue. Over the course of the semester, in cooperation with city departments andor community groups, students will plan, design and implement a public event, then synthesize and design the information and documentation that results from that event. The first half of the course will be devoted to the exploration and design of a community event that evokes feedback around a policy, an issue or a highstakes decision. Students might design situation rooms, community meals, performances, or other types of events, or consider how participation in government may become a part of everyday life. The second half of the course will be devoted to designing creative approaches to framing, presenting and making visible the peoples feedback generated at the public event for use in designing policy andor informing decisionmaking.
Prerequisites: none listed
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