The citizen lab – A collaborative exploration of citizenship
THE CITIZEN LAB is an interactive space devoted for citizens to speculate about the future and solve societal problems together. The lab was created as part of a collaborative independent project with another design student, in which we wanted to explore how design makes and unmakes citizenship; critiquing that citizens are being designed into customers by municipalities, regions and the state.
Process satirical comics by collaborating partner Théo Löfgren.
The problem
In Sweden today citizens, and non-citizens, are being designed into customers through the administrative levels of governance (municipalities, regions and the state); an action of unmaking a citizenship conferred by rights and obligations. This is done by languaging – referring to citizens as customers (‘kunder’) – the freedom of choice – promoting citizens to choose a pre-school, school, health center and/or elderly service, thus activating a consumer behavior which creates a society of services rather than a society of co-creation between the state and its members; and artifacts, such as the queue ticket dispenser placed in receptions, phone- and web interfaces, forms and surveys which are all created to resemble customer touch points and cater to customer satisfaction and needs.
The problem with a society where citizens are designed into customers is that customers have no right to insight into the levels of governance, thus reducing influence; they have no obligations which affect sustainability since sustainability on all levels – ecological, social, cultural and economical – are dependent on collective decision making and a responsibility to future generations. Also, it creates an unequal, segregated society, where the disadvantaged become more disadvantaged and those with resources get everything catered for them.
Process satirical comics by Tanu Mehta.
The space
Apart from being an interactive space for collaboration, the Citizen Lab was also supposed to critique that citizens are being designed into customers by employing provotypes; a queue ticket dispenser to remind citizens that they are not customers; a binder with nonsense forms and a rating board where citizens rate themselves were design to provoke discussion in the space.
Staging
The Citizen Lab was tested as a prototype in collaboration with the Enforcement Agency (‘Kronofogden’), who wanted help from citizens to solve the societal problem of being over-indebted, and the city library of Malmö (‘Stadsbiblioteket’) – where the lab was also staged – who wanted citizens to speculate about how Malmö could look like in the future.
The lab was staged for two days, where we, the designers, acted as hosts of the lab. The space served well as an entry point into conversation, through which the stakeholders’ – Kronofogden and Stadsbiblioteket – questions were discussed.
In the end the lab proved to be a great space for citizens to participate in future making and problem solving, as well as for us as designers to test our design out.