Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-5xszh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T11:40:16.626Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Design for Empathy: A Co-Design Case Study with the Finnish Parliament

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2019

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Globalisation and the mixing of people, cultures, religions and languages fuels pressing healthcare, educational, political and other complex sociocultural issues. Many of these issues are driven by society's struggle to find ways to facilitate deeper and more emotionally meaningful ways to help people connect and overcome the empathy gap which keeps various groups of people apart. This paper presents a process to design for empathy – as an outcome of design. This extends prior work which typically looks at empathy for design – as a part of the design process, as is common in inclusive design and human centered design process. We reflect on empathy in design and challenge the often internalised role of the designer to be more externalised, to shift from an empathiser to become an empathy generator. We develop and demonstrate the process to design for empathy through a co-creation case study aiming to bring empathy into politics. The ongoing project is set in the Parliament of Finland, and involves co- creation with six Members of the Parliament from five political parties. Outcomes of the process and case study are discussed, including design considerations for future research.

Type
Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2019

References

Alsever, J. (2015), Is virtual reality the ultimate empathy machine?. [online], Wired. Available at: https://www.wired.com/brandlab/2015/11/is-virtual-reality-the-ultimate-empathy-machine/ (04.02.2017).Google Scholar
Bason, C. (2017), Leading public design: Discovering human-centred governance, Policy Press, Bristol. http://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1t88xq5.15Google Scholar
Battarbee, K., Fulton Suri, J. and Gibbs Howard, S. (2014), Empathy on the edge. [online], IDEO. Available at: https://www.ideo.com/news/empathy-on-the-edge (10.10.2017).Google Scholar
Bloom, P. (2017), Against Empathy, Bodley Head, London.Google Scholar
Brown, T. and Katz, B. (2011), “Change by Design”, The Journal of Product Innovation Management, Vol. 28 No. 3, pp. 381383. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5885.2011.00806.xGoogle Scholar
Buchanan, R. (2001), “Design Research and the New Learning”, Design Issues, Vol. 17 No. 4, pp. 323. http://doi.org/10.1162/07479360152681056Google Scholar
Centre for Policy Research (2012), Policy Brief No. 46. Quality of Life for All Ages, By Design: A Conversation with Patricia Moore, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, New York.Google Scholar
Crabtree, J. (2011), “Agnes the ageing suit”. [online], Financial Times. Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/1fed1eee-b34b-11e0-9af2-00144feabdc0 (15.04.2017).Google Scholar
Cuff, B. M. P., Brown, S. J., Howat, D. J. and Taylor, L. (2016), “Empathy: a review of the concept”, Emotion Review, Vol. 8 No. 2, pp. 144153. http://doi.org/10.1177/1754073914558466Google Scholar
Feinberg, M. and Willer, R. (2015), “From Gulf to Bridge: When Do Moral Arguments Facilitate Political Influence?”, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 41 No. 12, pp. 16651681. http://doi.org/10.1177/0146167215607842Google Scholar
Groskopf, C. (2016), European politics is more polarized than ever, and these numbers prove it. [online], Quartz. Available at: https://qz.com/645649/european-politics-is-more-polarized-than-ever-and-these-numbers-prove-it/ (16.02.2018).Google Scholar
Hallett, R. (2016), The world's movement of people - in one map. [online], World Economic Forum. Available at: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/07/the-worlds-immigration-in-one-map/ (10.10.2018).Google Scholar
Henley, J. (2018), Safe, happy and free: does Finland have all the answers?. [online], The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/12/safe-happy-and-free-does-finland-have-all-the-answers (01.05.2018).Google Scholar
Hollan, D. (2012), “Emerging Issues in the Cross-Cultural Study of Empathy”, Emotion Review, Vol. 4 No. 1, pp. 7078. http://doi.org/10.1177/1754073911421376Google Scholar
Hooper, J. (2013), Pope attacks ‘globalisation of indifference’ in Lampedusa visit. [online], The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/08/pope-globalisation-of-indifference-lampedusa (13.05.2017).Google Scholar
Huck, J., Goulton, P., Gullick, D., Powell, P., Roberts, J., Hudson-Smith, A., De-Jode, M. and Mavros, P. (2015), “Supporting Empathy Through Embodiment of the Design of Interactive Systems” Work-in-Progress: Poster Presentation”, TEI 2015, Stanford, 15-19.01.2015, ACM, New York, pp. 523528. http://doi.org/10.1145/2677199.2687892Google Scholar
Huck, J., Powell, P. and Hudson-Smith, A. (2014), “Designing for Empathy in a Church Community”, AcademicMindTrek, Vol. 14, Tampere, Finland, 04-06.11.2014, ACM, New York, pp. 249251. http://doi.org/10.1145/2676467.2676497Google Scholar
IDEO (2009), Human-Centered Design Toolkit. [online], IDEO. Available at: https://www.ideo.com/post/design-kit (10.10.2017).Google Scholar
Konrath, S. H., O'Brien, E. and Hsing, C. (2011), “Changes in Dispositional Empathy in American College Students Over Time: a meta-analysis”, Personality and Social Psychology Review, Vol. 15 No. 2, pp. 180198. http://doi.org/10.1177/1088868310377395Google Scholar
Martin, L. J., Hathaway, G., Isbester, K., Mirali, S., Acland, E. L., Niederstrasser, N., Slepian, P. M., Trost, Z., Bartz, J. A., Sapolsky, R. M., Sternberg, W. F., Levitin, D. J., Mogil, J. S. (2015), “Reducing Social Stress Elicits Emotional Contagion of Pain in Mouse and Human Strangers”, Current Biology, Vol. 25 No. 3, pp. 326332. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2014.11.028Google Scholar
Naish, K. R. and Obhi, S. S. (2015), “Self-selected conscious strategies do not modulate motor cortical output during action observation”, Journal of Neurophysiology, Vol. 114 No. 4, pp. 22782284. http://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00518.2015Google Scholar
Obama, B. (2008), Northwestern Commencement Speech 2006. [online], NorthwesternU, YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MhMRYQ9Ez8 (10.11.2016).Google Scholar
OECD. (2017), “Using systems approaches in policy design: introducing experimental culture as a high-level political goal (Finland)”, in: OECD (Ed.), Systems Approaches to Public Sector Challenges: Working with Change, OECD Publishing, pp. 7992. http://doi.org/10.1787/9789264279865-enGoogle Scholar
Pew Research Centre (2017), The Partisan Divide on Political Values Grows Even Wider, Pew Research Centre, www.pewresearch.org.Google Scholar
Reynolds, M. (2018), No, Finland isn't scrapping its universal basic income experiment. [online], Wired. Available at: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/finland-universal-basic-income-results-trial-cancelled (10.10.2018).Google Scholar
Shashkevich, A. (2017), Empathy, respect for one another critical to ease political polarization, Stanford sociologist says. [online], Stanford News. Available at: https://news.stanford.edu/2017/01/20/empathy-respect-critical-ease-political-polarization-sociologist-says/ (18.03.2018).Google Scholar
Tarrant, M., Dazeley, S. and Cottom, T. (2009), “Social categorisation and empathy for outgroup members”, British Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 48 No. 3, pp. 427446. http://doi.org/10.1348/014466608X373589Google Scholar
Telle, N-T. and Pfister, H-R. (2015), “Positive Empathy and Prosocial Behavior: A Neglected Link”, Emotion Review, Vol. 8 No. 2, pp. 154163. http://doi.org/10.1177/1754073915586817Google Scholar
Todd, A. R., Bodenhausen, G. V., Richeson, J. A. and Galinsky, A. D. (2011), “Perspective taking combats automatic expressions of racial bias”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 100 No. 6, pp. 10271042. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01730.xGoogle Scholar
Tucker, E. (2017), Empathy kit uses augmented reality and candy to help users better understand autism. [online], Dezeen. Available at: https://www.dezeen.com/2017/01/08/heeju-kim-emapthy-bridge-kit-help-users-understand-autism-augmented-reality-candy/ (10.10.2018).Google Scholar
Uutiset, Y. (2018), NCP defector Harkimo co-founds new political movement – “Not a party”, [online], Yle Uutiset. Available at: https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/ncp_defector_harkimo_co-founds_new_political_movement__not_a_party/10171453 (20.05.2018).Google Scholar
Zibenberg, A. and Kupermintz, H. (2016), “Personal Values and Intergroup Empathy”, Journal of Human Values, Vol. 22 No. 3, pp. 180193. http://doi.org/10.1177/0971685816650584Google Scholar