Universal Recognition
How diverse perspectives within policy making can seed Wellbeing Economic Worlds fit for us all.
Why Innovate?
“It matters what stories make worlds, what worlds make stories” Donna J. Haraway, 2016
Inhospitable Lands
Marginalised folks often exist in a world that is not designed for them. Economic policy is no exception and marginalised folks are often underrepresented in economic research. Their experience is typically unrecognised, it is the dark matter on the maps of policymaker’s plans. I have personal experience of this disenfranchisement as I am invisibly disabled, have a parent who is hard of hearing and was an unpaid carer to my other parent during their terminal illness. For the project I worked with wellbeing experts from marginalised communities (outwith my own) most adversely affected by current economic practice. Together we explored equitable participation in Wellbeing Economics.
The Design Innovation – Expanding our Recognition, Universally
Universal Recognition (UR) is an approach to Wellbeing Economic research for policy. It is co-produced, accessibility focused and speculative. UR enabled folks with intersectional experiences of d/Deaf culture, ethnic marginalisation, migration and/or Disability to fully participate in imagining Wellbeing Economic futures. The resulting design fictions offer innovations that could move us towards better policy.
One exciting insight was the concept of Access Diversity (AD) as an economic indicator. People experience welbeing and access to it in differing ways. AD would measure economic strength not in financial growth but in variation of access.
Future Horizons
Universal Recognition offers us ways of expanding knowledge exchange within policy-making. Design provides a way of composting that knowledge so that we can absorb it in differing ways. This process nourishes the ground from which new policy is grown.
Through UR we explored the dazzling margins of economic solar systems. The cusp where non-normativity and imagination greets new worlds into existence. The space where we find new horizons and the seeds of future worlds. Policy-making today should be about composting the diverse stardust of our shared knowledges so they can nourish the policy landscapes of tomorrow.
Tending to New Lands Together
This project was only achievable through GSA’s flexible approach towards my access needs. It was only achievable through the collective knowledge of those who took part. The project participants plan to further explore UR as part of collaborative projects going forwards.
