Lawson, Cynthia. 2009. The New School Collaborates: Teaching and Learning Design and Social Responsibility in Immersive International Field Programs. Proceedings from MX Design Conference 2009 Impacto Social del Diseño. 84-7 (PDF of Proceedings available online at http://www.dis.uia.mx/conference/2009/articulos/LibroMX09.pdf)
Abstract
More than ever, universities need to create opportunities for our students to learn about, and practice social responsibility and particularly, to create change for the real world (in which 90% of the population has a critical need.) This paper focuses on the fi rst two years of an ongoing project between The New School’s divisions of Parsons (design), Milano (management and urban development) and General Studies (international aff airs), in New York, several external partners, and groups of Mayan artisan women in Guatemala, as an ongoing project in social entrepreneurship and humanitarian design. Of particular interest is how students, through an interdisciplinary spring curriculum and an intensive experience in Guatemala are learning skills that would never be possible in a standard on-campus classroom setting, and how interdisciplinary groups of students can holistically approach development work with artisan groups with the long-term goals of culture preservation and income generation.
Keywords
Social design, social responsibility, interdisciplinariety, cultural diversity
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