Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany.
Sci Eng Ethics. 2023 Apr 25;29(3):16. doi: 10.1007/s11948-023-00434-4.
This article introduces Designing for Care (D4C), a distinctive approach to project management and technological design informed by Care Ethics. We propose to conceptualize "care" as both the foundational value of D4C and as its guiding mid-level principle. As a value, care provides moral grounding. As a principle, it equips D4C with moral guidance to enact a caring process. The latter is made of a set of concrete, and often recursive, caring practices. One of the key assumption of D4C is a relational ontology of individual and group identities, which fosters the actualization of caring practices as essentially relational and (often) reciprocal. Moreover, D4C adopts the "ecological turn" in CE and stresses the ecological situatedness and impact of concrete projects, envisioning an extension of caring from intra-species to inter-species relations. We argue that care and caring can influence directly some of the phases and practices within the management of (energy) projects and the design of sociotechnical (energy) artefacts and systems. When issues related to "value change" emerge as problematic (e.g., values trade-offs, conflicts), the mid-level guiding principle of care helps evaluate and prioritize different values at stake within specific projects. Although there may be several actors and stakeholders involved in project management and technological design, here we will focus on the professionals in charge of imagining, designing, and carrying out these processes (i.e., project managers, designers, engineers). We suggest that adopting D4C would improve their ability to capture and assess stakeholders' values, critically reflect on and evaluate their own values, and judge which values prioritize. Although D4C may be adaptable to different fields and design contexts, we recommend its use especially within small and medium-scale (energy) projects. To show the benefits of adopting it, we envisage the application of D4C within the project management and the technological design of a community battery. The adoption of D4C can have multiple positive effects: transforming the mentality and practice of managing a project and designing technologies; enhancing caring relationships between managers, designers, and users as well as among users; achieving better communication, more inclusive participation, and more just decision-making. This is an initial attempt to articulate the structure and the procedural character of D4C. The application of D4C in a concrete project is needed to assess its actual impact, benefits, and limitations.
本文介绍了关怀设计（D4C），这是一种独特的项目管理和技术设计方法，以关怀伦理为指导。我们建议将“关怀”概念化为 D4C 的基础价值和指导中层原则。作为一种价值，关怀提供了道德基础。作为一个原则，它为 D4C 提供了道德指导，以实施关怀过程。后者由一套具体的、通常是递归的关怀实践组成。D4C 的一个关键假设是个体和群体身份的关系本体论，这促进了关怀实践作为本质上的关系性和（通常）互惠性的实现。此外，D4C 采用关怀伦理的“生态转向”，强调具体项目的生态定位和影响，设想从种内关系扩展到种间关系的关怀。我们认为，关怀和关爱可以直接影响（能源）项目管理和社会技术（能源）人工制品和系统设计的某些阶段和实践。当与“价值变化”相关的问题出现问题时（例如，价值权衡、冲突），关怀的中层指导原则有助于评估和优先考虑特定项目中涉及的不同价值。尽管项目管理和技术设计可能涉及多个参与者和利益相关者，但在这里，我们将重点关注负责想象、设计和执行这些过程的专业人员（即项目经理、设计师、工程师）。我们建议采用 D4C 可以提高他们捕捉和评估利益相关者价值的能力，批判性地反思和评估自己的价值，并判断哪些价值优先。虽然 D4C 可能适用于不同的领域和设计背景，但我们建议在小型和中型（能源）项目中使用它。为了展示采用它的好处，我们设想在社区电池的项目管理和技术设计中应用 D4C。采用 D4C 可以产生多种积极影响：改变项目管理和技术设计的思维和实践；增强管理者、设计师和用户之间以及用户之间的关怀关系；实现更好的沟通、更具包容性的参与和更公正的决策。这是首次尝试阐述 D4C 的结构和程序特征。需要在具体项目中应用 D4C 来评估其实际影响、效益和局限性。
