Unequal ideas: Reflections on designing politics, an urban ideas competition in Rio de Janeiro
2019
Pedagogy
Writing
Architecture
Coloniatliy
2019
Pedagogy
Writing
Architecture
Coloniatliy
Kaasa, Adam, 2019, ‘Unequal ideas: Reflections on designing politics, an urban ideas competition in Rio de Janeiro’ Design Issues, 35 (4). pp. 52-60. ISSN 0747-9360
This article initiates a discussion about the unequal geography of the labor that challenges institutions and processes of public scholarship in design. The comparison between the urban competitions in New York, London, and Rio de Janeiro demonstrates that it was only in the Global South that challenges to the technology of the competition were raised. These challenges were based on issues of power imbalances between institutions both within and between the Global North and Global South, and around questions of the social inequalities embedded in the structures of the competition itself (the submissions, the jury, the exhibition). Through this analysis, the article suggests that the burden of labor for decolonizing rests on those already oppressed by systems embedded in the continuous presence of colonialism.
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This article initiates a discussion about the unequal geography of the labor that challenges institutions and processes of public scholarship in design. The comparison between the urban competitions in New York, London, and Rio de Janeiro demonstrates that it was only in the Global South that challenges to the technology of the competition were raised. These challenges were based on issues of power imbalances between institutions both within and between the Global North and Global South, and around questions of the social inequalities embedded in the structures of the competition itself (the submissions, the jury, the exhibition). Through this analysis, the article suggests that the burden of labor for decolonizing rests on those already oppressed by systems embedded in the continuous presence of colonialism.
Download paper.
Link to journal site.
Image 1: Favela Barroca by Katianne Berquiolli, Lecticia Barros, Valdemar Candido Vargas, and Hyan Victor Costa Cantanhede. Spectaculu-selected winner for the Rio de Janeiro “Designing Respect” competition in 2016. Source: Theatrum Mundi.
Image 2: Service Wash by Alpa Depani and Thomas Randall-Page. Public voting winner for the London “Designing the Urban Commons” competition in 2015. Source: Theatrum Mundi, www.thomasrandallpage.com and www.alpadepani.com
Image 3: Floating Agora by Raquel de Anda, Gan Golan, and Ron Morrison. Jury winner for the New York “Designing for Free Speech” competition in 2014. Source: Theatrum Mundi.