Design is a series of processes that involves “finding a purpose, making a plan to achieve that purpose, and realizing it.” In many cases, the beneficiaries of design are “people,” and it is no exaggeration to say that designers design mainly for “people.” In manufacturing, the Industrial Revolution, which made mass production possible, triggered a shift from design based on individual orders to design that anticipates potential needs before orders come in and provides a large quantity of the same product, which led to the rise of designers who design as a profession. In this era of globalization of economy and logistics, the target users of a particular product may include more people than the population of a country (e.g., iPhone). On the other hand, objects such as public spaces, public transportation, and public buildings are required to have a “publicness” in that they can be used by anyone, making it difficult to divide “people” into different attributes and to approach and evaluate design.

For example, in the upstream design processes for general consumer goods, it is necessary to understand user settings and preferences, while in the upstream design processes for public goods, it is necessary to understand the characteristics of “society” as a collection of “human beings.” This means that a macro perspective is necessary in contrast to a micro perspective.

The debate on publicness began in ancient times and continues today in the fields of political philosophy, public economics, and public policy, making it an important topic relevant to our social life. The Human Condition (Arendt, 1958) and The Structural Transformation of Public Sphere (Habermas, 1962) are representative works that provide important perspectives for thinking about publicness today. Based on previous discourses on the public, the book Koukyousei (Publicness) (Saito, 2000) divides the meaning of publicness into three broad categories: 1) official, which relates to the state; 2) common, which relates to people; and 3) open, which relates to anyone. This provides an important scaffolding for considering the elusive theme of “publicness.” In addition, from the 2022 academic year onward, Koukyou (public affairs) will be newly established as a compulsory subject in high schools, requiring students to understand “We who create public space,” “How to be and live as a human being in public space,” and “Basic principles of public space.” This provides an important scaffolding for thinking about the elusive theme of “publicness.” In addition, students are encouraged to participate in the formation of a better society as independent subjects, and are required not only to acquire knowledge and theory of “public” but also to practice it in society, that is, to participate in the design process.

Traditionally, when it has been necessary to design things and objects (public goods and public objects) that should be considered public, except for special cases (due to time and economic constraints), related businesses, experts, and professional designers have taken the lead in the design process and made decisions. Of course, the designer’s expertise in exploring potential needs, the concept of universal design, which aims to make the product accessible to as many people as possible, and the inclusive design approach, which includes parties involved in the upstream design processes, have helped to realize the public interest.

On the other hand, in relation to “(2) Common things related to all people (common)” presented in Koukyousei mentioned above, it is stated that when collective decision-making is inevitable, the challenge is to form an immediate consensus. In such a case, how to identify the multifaceted parties (people and society) is an important issue. In order to make participation in the design process meaningful, it is also important to understand how to select the representatives of the parties, how to understand the publicness, and how to form a consensus that is not influenced by private feelings and interests. However, in order to find solutions to complex social issues, it is difficult to measure the practicality of such solutions through prototypes and experiments in a closed environment. For this reason, in recent years, social and demonstration experiments have been conducted by governments and private companies. It is necessary to have a mechanism to evaluate these open prototypes and experiments from the aspect of public interest.

From past design practices, we know that the key factors in considering publicness are “sustainability” in the sense of not disappearing even after use or fostering culture, and “affinity with the community” in the sense of being naturally integrated into local life or contributing to the community. However, it can be said that “local affinity” includes “privateness” in the sense that it is local to global publicness. Local affinity is public even though it contains local privateness, as long as it has sustainability, such as fostering culture. One example is public transportation for the community. In a depopulated area where industry has been lost, if a public transportation system is set up with the expectation of visitors from distant places such as overseas, it may be inconvenient for the local people even though the cost of maintenance would be excessive. In this case, limiting the parties involved to a more familiar range and paying attention to “affinity with the region” will help ensure “sustainability” and ultimately “publicness.”

What is important in addressing design with publicness is to properly identify the multifaceted parties (people and society) and encourage their participation in the design process. By doing so, it is possible to avoid “publicness” that results in a global and universal design that “everyone can use,” but that “no one uses” nonetheless. It is also necessary to evaluate the design process and design products from the perspective of “publicness.” Today’s designers are required to have an attitude of awareness of “publicness,” such as looking at and thinking about people and society from various distances and directions.

(SAKOTSUBO Tomohiro)

関連する授業科目

Industrial Design Course 　Introduction to Product Design

参考文献

• Arendt, Hannah (1958), The Human Condition, Charles R. Walgreen Foundation Lectures, University of Chicago Press. （ハンナ・アーレント（1973゠1994）『人間の条件』志水速雄訳、中央公論社／ちくま学芸文庫)
• Habermas, Jürgen (1990=1962), Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit : Untersuchungen zu einer kategorie der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft, Suhrkamp. （ユルゲン・ハーバーマス（1994゠1973）『公共性の構造転換 市民社会の一カテゴリーについての探究』細谷貞雄、山田正行訳、未來社）
• 齋藤純一（2000）『公共性（シリーズ思考のフロンティア）』岩波書店
• 東京都高等学校公民科「倫理」「現代社会」研究会編著（2018）『新科目「公共」 「公共の扉」をひらく 授業事例集』清水書院
• 文部科学省（2018）『高等学校学習指導要領（平成30年告示）解説 公民編 平成30年7月』文部科学省ホームページ