Smile by Sopon

This movie was created by Sopon Chinjinda (โสภณ  ฉิมจินดา). I had a meeting with him for another project for the disabled community. His work is very positive and creative. By the way, he is part of our team now to communicate something that cannot be seen through the most power tool in our time.

If you understand Thai language, you will love it.

The bright young man in the Vedio is Sophon himself. He won the first prize of Disability Film Award 2008

เทศกาลภาพยนตร์และงานสัมมนาเรื่องความพิการ

หนังสั้นเรื่องเก็บยิ้ม เก็บยิ้ม หนังสั้นชนะเลิศรางวัลงานเทศกาลภาพยนต์และสัมมนาเรื่องความพิการ กำกับโดย  โสภณ ฉิมจินดา

http://healthyability.com/seminar.php?sem_id=2&de_id=13

Fieldwork in the disabled community

On September 6th, I went to conduct the first phase of my research with the physically disabled people in the Phrapradaeng community in Samutprakran province in Thailand. I had an opportunity to have a meeting with the members of the disabled community on September 10th at 10:00 am.-12:00pm. At this meeting, I introduced my research objectives, procedures and expected outcomes. After the meeting, there were 14 members decided to participate in this investigation. The participants suggested that I should collect their individual data in the afternoon. They also suggested that I should use an open-ended questionnaire  instead of interview. However, semi-interview was still applied to some people who could not write their answers.

On September 17th-19th, I observed their livelihoods in the community and had conversation with other members who did not attend in the first meeting. 5 more people wished to participate in the investigation. Therefore, I invited them to participate in a group discussion on September 18th at 10:00am-12:00 pm. During the group discussion, I requested the participants to choose the stage of participation. There were 19 participants want to participate in this investigation. All of them chose to give information and consultation, and support the acivities, but  only 5 of them decided to make decision and take action together. After the group discussion, I have learned that the structure of the disabled community is more complex than I thought. The data that I collected from observation and a group discussion is very different than my expected. While I was in the field, I had to adapted my research tools in order to collect data effectively.

After the group discussion, the disabled decided to write a proposal to request for fund from their local government to support their activities. They said that the process will take approximately two months.  According to the group discussion, they planned to have a workshop to develop their capabilities for sustainable livelihoods on December 19-20th, 2008. At this stage, I am analyzing the data from the first phase and planning for the next phase with the participants and my supervisors. This fieldwork helps me to answer my first research question and guide me to the next phase clearly.

I will present the reflection and research progress at the Graduate Reserach Conference (GRC) at RMIT university on October 18th at 2:30-3:30pm. After the GRC, I am going back to the disabled community in Thailand and continue the next phase. I will up date my post after new year.

Intellectual Property Culture in Thai Universities

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) have been introduced in Thai universities for many years. There are only a few universities such as Chulalongkron University, Mahidon University, Kasetsart University, and King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL) that really take action by setting up IPR policy and IP management centers in their universities. Read full article in makepdfphp

Capability Development for Sustainable Livelihoods

Developing capabilities of people with physical disabilities in the central region of Thailand becomes the main focus for my research because the livelihoods of people with disabilities can be determined by their abilities and assets. According to Ministry of Social Development and Human Security in Thailand (2007:3-4) and Handicap International in France (2003:19) , people who have had a disability since birth or early childhood have often been denied formal education or have lived in social isolation. As the result, they may have poorly developed social skills and they may suffer from lack of self esteem. They need more time and training to prior to starting economic activities. As David Wheeler, Kevin McKague, and Jane Tomson (2003:9) state the sustainable livelihoods approach takes an assets-based approach and shifts that focus from the needs of the poor to the assets and strengths which poor already have. Therefore, the first phase of my research is to find out about the capabilities of people with disabilities in the particular part of Thailand.

Sustainable livelihoods

According to Department for International Development (DFID, 2000), “A livelihood comprises the capabilities, assets, (including both material and social resources) and activities required for a means of living. A livelihood is sustainable when it can cope with and recover from stresses and stocks and maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets both now and in the future, while not undermining the natural resource base.” The sustainable livelihoods framework consists of five key components as follows.

Source: Department for International Development, 2000.

Figure 1 Sustainable Livelihoods Framework
1) The vulnerability context is uncontrollable by local people in the immediate or medium-term. It refers to shocks, trends, and seasonality that affect people’s livelihoods.
2) Livelihood assets can provide opportunities for people to achieve their livelihoods. They can be divided into five categories.
- Human capital is a category of livelihood assets. It represents skills, knowledge, capacity to work, and good health that enable people to achieve their livelihood outcomes.
- Natural capital is the term which used for the natural resource stocks such as trees, land, clean air, coastal resources. They are resources that people rely on and provide both direct and indirect benefits.
- Finance capital is defined as the finance resources that people use to achieve their livelihood objectives. They can be several forms such as cash, bank deposits, livestock, or jewellery.
- Social capital is social relationships both formal and informal. These social resources are developed through investment in such as interactions that increase people’s abilities to work together, membership of more formal groups in which relationships are governed by accepted rules and norms, and relationship of trust that facilitate co-operation.
- Physical capital is basic infrastructure that supports livelihoods. It can help people to meet their basic needs such as shelter, water supply, energy, good communication, and affordable transportation.
3) Policy, Institutions, and processes are inter-related factors that have a great effect on all aspects of livelihoods. Policy can be thought of as a principle of action which is designed to achieve particular goals. The policy can be divided into macro and micro policy. It can also be strategies which are designed to create a long-term framework for action or short-term. Institutions and processes are not given but they are continually shaped by people.
4) Livelihood Strategies are used as a term which donates to the combination of activities and choices that people make for achieving their livelihoods.
5) Livelihood Outcomes are the achievement or the results of the livelihood strategies. Outcome categories can be different as follows.
- more income
- increased well-being
- reduced vulnerability
- improved food security
- more sustainable use of the natural base
- social relation and status
- dignity and (self) respect
Source: Department for International Development, 2000.

Functions of Sketching in Design

According to Ferguson (1992 in Van Der Lugt, 2005: p 102-103), there are three kinds of sketches.
1. Thinking sketches refer to the designers making use of the drawing surface in support of their individual thinking processes.

2. Talking sketches refer to the designers making use of the shared drawing surface in support of the group discussion. Ferguson states: ‘…talking sketches, spontaneously draw during discussions with colleagues, will continue to be important in the process of going from vision to artifact. Such sketches make it easier to explain a technical point, because all parties in the discussion share a common graphical setting for the idea being debated’

3. Prescriptive sketches refer to the designers communicating design decisions to persons that are outside of the design process.

As Ullman (Ullman et al., 1990 in Van Der Lugt, 2005: p 103) states that sketches provide a means to store design ideas, so that they can be revisited at a later point in time. They will refer to this category of sketches as ’storing sketches.’ Storing sketcches refer to the designers using the drawing surface to archive design ideas for their own future reference. Storing sketches have much in common with perscriptive sketches. Van Der Lugt (2005: p 103) states “the storing sketch is intended for retaining information, whereas the perspective sketch is intended for communicating information.

Based on Van Der Lugt’s research (2005: p 119), the thinking sketch and the storing sketch can stimulate creativity, especially in the immediate individual idea generation process, and provide a more integated group process, by providing better access to the earlier ideas, especially in the shared parts of external memory.

Reference
Van Der Lugt, Remko. 2005. How sketching can affect the idea generation process in design group meetings: Design Studies. Vol 26 No.2 March 2005. Great Britain: Elsevier.

Designed by communities

This was part of my previous research project which I have worked with the disabled and disadvantaged people in Ladkrabang community in Bangkok and Phrapradaeng community in Samutprakran province. They had developed the products based on their skills and abilities and used local material which is plenty in their areas. Before they displayed their products, they had to file the designs for design protection. Last year, they displayed and distributed their products at Bangkok International Gift Fair and Bangkok International Houseware Fair at IMPACT, Muang Thong Thani, Nonthaburi, Thailand in October 2007

The result has shown that the local customers were very interested in our products because they are unique and beautiful. Their products were sold out at the fair. The foreign customers were also very interested in the creative design but there was not any further order at the fair. From the interviewing at the fair, we found out that the local material that we used is prohibited to import into some countries and it is hard to keep clean. Therefore, the next phase, the disabled and disadvantaged groups have to find new local material which is suitable for the design and be able to access the global markets in the future.

I will keep you posted the new design through “designed by communities”. If you are interested in our products please contact Mr. Preecha Boonpreecha. He is a local designer in Ladkrabang community. Mobile phone: +6689 001 1034  or Mr. Singkhom Maneechansuk, the president of Samutprakran Disabled Persons Association (SDPA). E-mail: singh123@hotmail.com or Mobile Phone: +6681 831 9544

Whose right is it?

Researchers and people in communities develop products together through Participatory Action Research(PAR). Sometimes they create new innovations, inventions, and intellectual properties together. The next question is who can claim these intellectual properties. The researchers need to be clear about this before working with people in communities. ip_from_par.pdf

Trademark Design

What is trademark? How can we create one? This article is about designing a trademark  for SMEs and OTOP groups. This is Thai version only.

trademark_design.pdf

Developing Sustainable Communities in Thailand through Participatory Design

The 11th UNESCO-APEID International Conference “Reinventing Higher Education: Toward Participatory and Sustainable Development” was convened in Bangkok, Thailand, from 12 to 14 December 2007.

This research aims focused on assisting disadvantaged and disabled people in communities in the central region of Thailand to develop their products and become empower and self-esteem through participatory design. The methodology of this research was ethnography and participatory action research. There were 200 participants in three communities who involved in participatory design. They are located in Bangkok, Samutprakran, and Nonthaburi province. In each community, there are key stakeholders who are collaborative partners with the research team from universities, local governments, non government organizations (NGOs), and private sectors. The results of this research had varying level of success through participatory and collaboration. These communities have become partnerships in sustainable development with universities, local government, NGOs, and private sectors and keen to take further plan and action to become sustainable communities in the future.

peters_paper1.doc

http://www.unescobkk.org/education/apeid/apeid-international-conference/11apeidconf/programme/concurrent-sessions0/day-1-session-2a-universities-and-community-participation/