Week 3: Initial Project Ideas
Hello again, I hope everyone has mostly recovered from a busy week. I have been trying to wrap my head around the idea for a project and think about how it ties into the intensive work this week.
Reflecting on the start of the week, it was just as it was described – intense.
I don’t know if it was the lack of sleep or how much we accomplished over the two days but it was a bit of blur at times. The second day was much more enjoyable for me than the first one, I think because I didn’t have as much fear of the unknown and there was less pressure with the second round of presentations. I was also able to actually take breaks when we had them instead of working straight through. A dog walk in the crisp autumn air over “lunch” (breakfast for me) inspired me to draw connections between my community environment and an article I had read in addition to our assigned workload (it came highly recommended by Theresa B and can be found here: Public things, excremental politics, and the infrastructure of bare life in Ghana’s city of Tema ). Foreshadowing: This will be content for a future blog!
I attended the Partner’s event online on Wednesday and saw quite a few interesting partners listed but it was hard to network and find out much by attending online with the selected format. Only two organizations popped in online.
When I applied to this program I was thinking my project would be one related directly to my work, and that I would partner with my workplace. However I realized that I could do a project that would mean more to me if I selected something outside of work.
SCOPING
I have gone through a bit of thinking around my project and what its focus might be and have narrowed the scope a bit:
First, I want to do something to address some form of inequality I care about deeply because I have a personal connection to it either directly or through friends and family – this includes work with and for women, youth, older adults, those who are houseless, those in poverty, people with a disability, work towards anti-racism, or supporting Indigenous rights.
Secondly, I would like to generate a real change with my project. I would like it to go beyond just research. I want to see it implemented and used to address an issue of inequality related to one of these areas.
Thirdly, I initially wanted to focus on my own region or something that I could consider globally. Although there were interesting projects listed by UK and Scotland-based partners, a lot of the proposed projects seemed to be focused on very localized impacts. I am still thinking whether I could undertake something like this and scale up work to implement it here at home or on a global scale.
Fourth, I know I have a tendency to plan big and I need something reasonable that I could actually accomplish within the set timeframe. This means being a wee bit practical when settling on my project scope. So I was thinking of a few communication products I could use to share the project – such as a website, a registry of searchable data, visualizations of data relating to an issue, or videos or teaching curriculum that could be posted and shared online.
Fifth, I have no idea if we are only supposed to do things that are free, or if we are supposed to find some source of funds (which is maybe the benefit of a partner?) but I was also thinking about agencies I could approach that might be willing to fund something small, or where I can look for sources of funds, or even who in my networks might volunteer expertise with things like hosting a website or producing a video.
Six: I would like to use my current skill set as much as possible and augment it with all the coursework I am going to do over the next two years. So what do I know about? How to design digital tools with users, how to consult with those who are most highly impacted, how to approach diverse groups respectfully, a bit of coding, a bit of UX design, lots of social impact research and knowledge of Indigenous rights and history in Canada, how to engage and partner with Indigenous peoples, how to ask questions, how to build connections.
Seven – which is my favourite number by the way – I wanted to solve a problem that is on my mind, in real life, right now.
PROBLEMS
What are some problems I have noticed that I want to try and solve?
- Older adults who need help to get places, more accessible places, or don’t have a place to rest. This could be when they are out doing anything from going through security at the airport to waiting at a pharmacy, to attending events in a public park. Many older adults use mobility devices and want to remain independent. My mom is 83 and is still very mobile, but she gets tired, especially from walking on concrete (her words) and if it’s hot out it can be even more challenging.
- How can I, from my position of white privilege, promote and support anti-racism work related to black people and Indigenous people in Canada. This is, not simply saying I am not a racist, or calling it out online, donating money and wearing an orange shirt, but really actively doing something about it.
- Repatriation of Indigenous artifacts and remains. As many of you may know, Canada is starting to identify areas at residential schools (See my Blog 2 for some information on this) where there are vast unmarked graves of children. In at least one place in the US, they actually brought the children’s remains home to their communities for a proper burial with ceremony. I think most of us have been to museums where we are viewing cultural objects and artifacts, regalia and other items that were likely stolen from Indigenous communities or given in good faith to people who have now broken treaties and relationships. Many First Nations in Canada have started to obtain these items back from museums or at least identify where they are and ensure they are properly kept with the right data to describe them.
- Climate change caused by reliance on oil and gas and high levels of consumption and how to get youth to care more about this and how it will affect their future.
- The number of people who are houseless in my city and country, and how basic housing is possible and could help people to address other issues in their lives if only they had a safe place to live.
- Impacts of the global pandemic on vulnerable people how we can get people to think more about collective responsibility even if your personal freedom are slightly impacted.
- The rise of the far-right with increasing level of violence and how I see this starting to impact and spread to more rational people who elect “conservative” governments with direct ties to far-right organizations.
I could make a much longer list…
SOLUTIONS
As I mentioned I would like to see if there is some sort of digital technology which I can use to help with some of these issues, possibly leading to more practical changes in some cases. I also know for a lot of these areas I will need to do a lot of research to see what is currently available for tools and research already.
A few things I thought of:
- A video series that could be shared on social medial or implemented into high school curriculum on one or more of these issues to educate and empower youth to take action on some of these problems. I would investigate this option with some education professionals and youth – I also plan to take a course on social media influence from EFI.
- An app that maps out disabled-friendly locations in your city based on set parameters and gives it an accessibility score.
- A social media / communications campaign to help influence some form of policy change related to poverty or social reactions to racism. I think a UN agency may be a good partner for this type of work. I am also taking Neuropolitics of Decision Making this term, which I think may help me learn about this.
- A tool that can join older adults with supportive people or services more easily to help them remain independent with a little bit of help and support. I would seek to interview older adults about their needs and connect with some agencies that work in this area, potentially leading to partnerships.
- I still haven’t ruled out reaching out to other federal government departments in Canada to see if there are some active projects I could support directly. I know of at least one I may ask about which is trying to find ways to fight racism in the public service and empower, develop, and promote more black people.
This is the one I have thought the most about:
A crowdsourced registry via a website and app for reporting Indigenous items located in museums or collections, reported by these same museums or collectors, or members of the public who travel and observe the items where they are. Indigenous communities can look up or even post their missing items to being a process of repatriation or other means of addressing the loss. Data sets could be generated to report on how many items are repatriated and by which organizations which may help to pressure other organizations to follow. Perhaps a big organization like the Royal Society would want to support this work? I have some connections with local First Nations who I would like to talk to about how to go about this work and if they would support it before deciding if this is the project for me. I would need to create an application to use for the tool and set data points and start to populate it myself if I can but going through any online collections or collecting information on missing items from communities. The Indigenous Futures course is likely to help me formulate this idea a bit more. I will definitely need to look at any current research on repatriation. (Photo below sourced from this article: After More than a century in the UK, Blackfoot relics could soon come home. Siksika Nation is one of the nations on whose traditional territory I am settled upon)
Chief Crowfoot Regalia
RESEARCH
I plan to reach out directly to the people and organizations most impacted by the project to talk to them about it conceptually and design the project scope with their input. I also want to see if there is existing Statistics Canada data on my issue, which is a good place to start my data collection. I will search the wealth of online articles we have read and references for these articles while also reaching out to my current instructors to obtain referrals to sources of information or potential partners. Lastly I am hoping to see if there are any dissertations or projects that followed a similar journey.
When selecting an organization to partner with, I want to find out what their history has been in this area, get an idea of their structure and successes in the past. As I mentioned above, I want this project to be something that effects real change, and I would like it to come to fruition over the next two years.
I am looking forward to hearing what you think about the project I am considering and reading your ideas as well!
#Magenta
After posting my blog, I floated some of these ideas with my daughter, and she stated “Why would you do something that won’t matter when the world won’t exist because of climate change. Maybe you should work on those other things after we have a world we can live in.” We had a long conversation about how to get youth to care more about issues that may impact them in future as I observed my thinking had changed over the years. When I was younger I don’t know that I thought about problem solving global issues but in terms of climate change we now need drastic changes immediately. We talked more about government intervention to force a move away from fossil fuels. She also shared her concerns about overconsumption and overproduction. We discussed whether the root of these issues was greed and what we could do to influence people to change their minds about overconsumption or capitalism. It sounds like her generation feels like things are a bit hopeless sometimes and that nothing can be done to change things. In any case, I am glad I spent time discussing it with her and plan to think a bit more on my project ideas. #Magenta
You have no idea how excited I am that you took me up on that article. I can’t wait to read your thoughts on it.
I like the idea of approaching the final project from the point of view of a problem in need of solving. The crowd-sourced registry of indigenous items is interesting, and even though you’re ultimately envisioning these projects as something that yu can hopefully take large, this would be something that you could start smaller and build out. Sort of like this database in Quebec https://centerforthehumanities.org/james-gallery/exhibitions/expanding-options-for-digital-repatriation (weirdly, this exhibition was the only mention I could find of this project, so I don’t know if it’s still in the works or what happened–have you heard of it?). I like the idea of crowdsourcing data, although it opens up some issues, as discussed in Crutcher and Zook’s “Placemarks and Waterlines: Racialized cyberscapes in post-Katrina Google Earth” where there was less data produced in areas with a higher percentage of Black inhabitants, possibly because information about the tools didn’t reach them. I imagine this kind of thing can be addressed through targeted community outreach, though (and maybe a Board of representative stakeholders to help with certain kinds of decision-making and promotions? — How fancy are you envisioning this?). You also might look at what has been written about crowd-sourcing ethics, like this paper on “Ethical norms and issues in crowdsourcing practices”: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/isj.12227 or this one on “The ethical use of crowdsourcing”: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/beer.12173 (I’m VPNing which makes my view of what is available publicly a little skewed, so if you can’t access the full papers at those links, they’re probably accessible by searching the University library). (Also, it’s really a shame you couldn’t see that John Oliver episode I shared in the online Team, I think you would especially have enjoyed it given it touches on an area you’re interested in).
My second favorite is the disability-friendly location map app, but that one sounds hard to me. Where does the data for the scores come from? And then the interface of the app itself needs to take into consideration for different types of disabilities. A lot of my hesitation on those questions are more about my own skills and knowledge limitations (which always gives me an initial kick of fear) though rather than the idea, which is interesting.
What a goldmine you gifted me in your comment Theresa – thank you so very much! I have looked at the project site from Quebec and what they tried to do there was very similar to what I was thinking about, but scaled up to consider a global database since many artifacts from First Nations in Canada were brought to international museums and no one even knows they are there. It is a massive undertaking, so I do have to think on how to scope it some more if its the one I choose.
In terms of accessibility, this is something I have been focused on for my work outside of school a little more recently, so I am hoping to leverage the knowledge I am developing there with that sort of project. If you or anyone else is interested, you likely have access through Teams to the Power Platform to build your own little apps – and Microsoft has built in tools to assess for accessibility. I would use this in addition to engaging directly with the affected people who might use the app to get their input on it.
I am glad you think these might work as projects – I am a little concerned when I see others list that their projects are about doing research so I want to make sure whatever I do will create data that I can draw inferences from as well.
So many problems to solve, not enough hours in the day!