Public Comment - Master’s Thesis
Are local governments designed for equitable citizen participation? Civic engagement intends to empower citizens and ensure representative governance, but barriers to participation can hinder those positive outcomes. City council meetings, a key venue for public input, present unique challenges to engagement such as overwhelming meeting durations and intimidating formalities. These challenges are especially prevalent for Generation Z who self-report that they don’t have enough time or don’t feel informed enough for civic engagement. My thesis research explores how the design of multimodal mediating artifacts, inspired by the design critique, can enhance accessibility for Gen Z adults’ participation in city council meetings and foster more democratic public discourse at the local level.
The complex dynamics of city council meetings invite comparisons to another structured form of discourse: the design critique. To address the communication challenges within city council meetings, the author turns to contemporary design critique practices, in particular. The format for design critiques can vary greatly, from writing feedback on sticky notes to a formal presentation with a jury of reviewers. Across methods, its purpose is generally centered around exposure to critical analysis from multiple perspectives to improve a designer’s work through collaborative dialogue. There lies the parallel between critique and city council meetings. In the latter, the public provides feedback (critique) so that policymakers can create legislation in accordance with the people’s wishes.
Contemporary critique practices have evolved to address unequal power dynamics in a discourse-centered environment. Naturally, in student-teacher interactions, the instructor has a position of authority and is largely responsible for shaping classroom dynamics. In light of this, novel critique methods offer alternative rules for dialogue, room arrangements, and the use of new technology, in an attempt to decenter the instructor’s perspective and invite more peer feedback.To study and use contemporary critiques as an inspirational model for supporting inclusive, equitable public discourse, I created a Design Critique Catalog.
Grounded in activity theory and Habermas’ public sphere theory, this research frames city council meetings as dynamic systems of discourse, where a citizen’s ability to contribute depends on the tools available to mediate communication. The theory of multimodality is also incorporated to argue how increasing communication channels can enhance discourse. Using the intersection of these three theories the author introduces multimodal mediating artifacts as unique instruments that utilize more than one mode of communication simultaneously for greater accessibility.
This study uses the city of Fayetteville’s city council meetings as a case study, identifying existing obstacles through observation and analysis. Through interviews with first-time meeting attendees from my primary audience, autoethnography, and behavioral mapping, I discovered areas of opportunity for critique-like tools that empower Gen Z adults to participate more actively. Ultimately, this case study offers a conceptual framework that could be adapted by designers or non-designers for other municipalities of varying sizes, or other spaces of public discourse.
In this quote, architect Louis Kahn speaks of columns, not just as structural supports, but as elements that can create space instead of block paths. Columns transformed the built environment by replacing solid walls with open, supportive structures. In ancient Rome, columns framed civic spaces like the Forum, which was the center of civic life. In that spirit, I designed Forum, a digital platform
placed in and around the city council meeting environment that create
new pathways into the civic environment. Each mode of the platform is a pillar that upholds the values of public discourse—accessibility, transparency, and equity—while reducing barriers that have historically limited participation.
Below are a few images highlighting Forum, but a deeper look into the intervention can be found here.