Contestational Design: Innovation for Political Activism

Report

A PhD thesis (MIT, August 2008) by Tad Hirsch that presents contestational design, design activity aimed at promoting particular agendas in contested political arenas. It applies the framework to two case studies: TXTmob, an SMS-broadcast system built with activists for the 2004 Democratic and Republican National Conventions, and Dialup Radio, a telephone-based independent media system developed with a civil society organisation in Zimbabwe to reach the rural poor. The file is large.