This is my current thesis proposal as of this morning. It grows daily. I will post updates when it makes sense to do so. I am also including my Preliminary Bibliography. If a reader is so inclined, suggestions are very welcome! This work is copyrighted. ©2018. Casey Hrynkow. All rights reserved.
Needing to Belong
Helping Mainstream Canadians Care About the Homeless.
A Graduate Project in Design for Social Innovation Through Simon Fraser University and Emily Carr University of Art and Design
1. Introduction
Homelessness is an uncomfortable issue for Canadians. People not directly affected by it don’t want to see it in their communities, often blaming the homeless themselves for the situation. Since homelessness became an unavoidable issue in the 1990s in Canada, well-informed and well-intentioned experts in public policy, social work, health care, law enforcement — to name a few — have worked on developing solutions, largely in isolation from each other, and the problem continues to grow. It grows not only in major cities but in smaller towns. But it appears to be a reality to which our society will need to adapt rather than ignore. Many Canadians just want it to go away. How can we change that? How might we sensitize mainstream Canadian society to the causes of homelessness in order to help drive the political will to make change on a national level?
My particular source of interest in this project is personal. I lost a brother 20 years ago. He had ended up homeless, ultimately dying of a drug overdose. We were a comfortable “west-side” family with hidden traumas that ultimately pushed my brother to become drug dependent. He was a bright, kind, articulate human being. And yet, as a homeless addict, he was invisible and, admittedly, frightening in many ways, even to his own family. He was seen as beyond help by many people. Why does that shift happen? Can it be mitigated, if not entirely changed?
There are so many threads to homelessness, human nature being chief among them. The perception that weak moral character is somehow the root cause of mental illness, drug dependency, poverty, and random misadventure hinders meaningful work on solving homelessness. As long as Canadians and their various levels of government continue to view the homeless as “less than” and to pass the problem back and forth between them, it cannot be adequately addressed.
If we as a society begin to operate from the premise that a small percentage of the Canadian population will always need social support and that, as a civilized society we bear a responsibility to care for them, we can then begin to work in earnest. Can we adapt our thinking?
This project seeks to seed a meaningful shift in Canadians’ perceptions of people who are homeless.
Through Simon Fraser University’s Graduate Liberal Studies Program and the Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability (DESIS) Lab at Emily Carr University of Art and Design, this project will look at ways to generate effective communication solutions through co-creation, design thinking and generative design based on the premise that, when people are brought together in unfamiliar groupings for facilitated workshops that help them think in cross-disciplinary ways, true innovation can be achieved.
How is it that, by a change in circumstance, a person we know, love, or live with can become someone we will then walk by without seeing?
2. Desired objectives and anticipated outcomes
This research will explore the efficacy of design thinking methodologies in bringing disparate segments of the population together to deal with “wicked problems” such as homelessness. At the very least, it is anticipated that this research will open up new lines of communication around homelessness in Canada. At its greatest extent, people will begin to see each other differently, more respectfully and with greater compassion.
“Adaptive challenges can only be addressed through changes in people’s perceptions” — Lisa Kay Solomon
3. Proposed Sections and Timeline
This work and timeline is described in a wholly linear way. This is not how design thinking works, however. For purposes of setting timeframes, it is described in the following way:
What we know about homelessness in Canada
Secondary Research/Literature Review
Completion: end Spring 2018
What is being done to mitigate homelessness in Canada and abroad
Secondary Research/Literature Review
Completion: end Spring 2018
What we don’t know understand about the homeless
Primary Research/Expert Interviews
Completion: end Fall 2018
Defining Opportunity Space
Conclusions from Research and Definition of Problem/Opportunity
Completion: end Fall 2018
What would shift our view of the homeless?
Primary Research/ Co-creation Workshops
Completion: end Fall 2018
Design Response
Design Solution
Completion: end Spring 2019
Completion
Paper and Designed Outcomes
Completion: Fall 2019
4. Ethics Approval
This project will likely require Research Ethics Board Approval for Level 3, Minimal Risk. There is some potential for psychological harm and/or social harm.
Research participants are anticipated to be members of the general public, over the age of 18 years, who may have experienced personal loss or trauma associated with this subject, In addition there is potential for social stigma surrounding the sharing of personal stories or opinions.
5. Glossary of Key Terms
Design Thinking: This is a methodology of borrowing from the way designers solve problems to help non-designers see problems in new ways, break down barriers to innovation. It involves using disruptive thinking exercises in group settings to explore deeper meaning, new meaning and future possibilities.
Restorative Practices: Growing out of the practice of Restorative Justice, Restorative Practices are a an emerging social science based in psychology, social work, criminology, sociology, organizational development and leadership that seek to increase social capital and understanding through use of participatory learning and decision making.
Wicked Problems: Wicked problems are referred to as such, not because of their degrees of difficulty, but because “traditional methods can’t resolve them”. The term was coined by Horst W.J. Ritter in Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning , Policy Sciences, 4:2 (1973:June). Specifically, a wicked problem is on for which:
1 There is no definitive formulation. The information needed to understand the problem depends upon one’s idea for solving it. Formulating a wicked problem is the problem.
2 There is no stopping rule. Because solving the problem is identical to understanding it, there are no criteria for sufficient understanding and therefore completion.
3 Solutions are not true or false, but good or bad.
4 There is no immediate and no ultimate test of the solution.
5 Every solution is “one-shot” — there is no opportunity to learn by trial and error. Every solution leaves traces that cannot be undone.
6 No enumerable set of solutions (or an exhaustively describable) set of potential solutions, nor is there a well-decried set of permissible operations that may be incorporated into the plan.
7 Every wicked problem is unique.
8 Every wicked problem can be considered a symptom of another problem.
9 The existence of a discrepancy representing a wicked problem can be explained in numbers ways. The choice of explanation determines the nature of a problem’s resolution. This definition is particularly germane to the problem in my research. To adapt from Dr. Ritter’s paper, homelessness can be explained by drug dependency, weak moral character, not enough policing, social depravity, criminality. It can also be explained as a health issue, a mental health issue, a crisis, as well as an obligation to care for our fellow human beings because we are a wealthy western society.
10 The planner has no right to be wrong. The planner is responsible for the well-being of many; there is no such thing as hypotheses that can be proposed, tested, and refuted.
6. Preliminary Bibliography
Aleem, Zeeshan. “14 Years After Decriminalizing All Drugs, Here’s What Portugal Looks Like”. Mic. 2015.
Benjaminsen, Lars and Evelyn Dyb. “The Effectiveness of Homeless Policies-Variations among the Scandinavian Countries.” European Journal of Homelessness. 2 (2008): 45–67. Web. 3. Dec. 2011.
Berti, Mario. “Handcuffed Access: Homelessness and the Justice System.” Urban Geography. 2010.
Culhane, Dara. “Their Spirits Live within Us: Aboriginal Women in Downtown Eastside
Vancouver Emerging into Visibility.” American Indian Quarterly 27, no. 3/4 (2003):593–606. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4138965
Dawson, Massam, and Stephens, “Vancouver Peer Reference Group Report on Peer Support for Homelessness and Mental Health. Canadian Electronic Library/DesLibris.
Gaetz, Donaldson, Richter and Gulliver. “The State of Homelessness in Canada.” Canadian Homelessness Research Network Press. 2013.
Global Homelessness Statistics. Homeless World Cup Foundation.
https://homelessworldcup.org/homelessness-statistics/
Graham, “Rounding ’em up on the East Side of the Wild West”. University of British Columbia. 2007.
Gulliver-Garcia, T. (2016). Putting an End to Child & Family Homelessness in Canada.Toronto: Raising the Roof
Hansen, Finn Kenneth. “The Homeless Strategy in Denmark.” European Journal of Homelessness. 4 (2010): 112–125. Web. 2. Dec. 2011
Hutter, “Northern Ontario First Nation Residents Get to Design Their Own Homes in Pilot Project”. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 2017.
Kerr, Daniel. “We Know What the Problem Is: Using video and radio oral history to develop collaborative analysis of homelessness”. The Oral History Review. 1 January 2003. Vol.30(1). pp.27–45
Klein and Copas. “Unpacking the Numbers.” Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. 2010.
Lupick, Travis. “Fighting for Space”. Arsenal Pulp Press. Vancouver. 2017.
Martinsen, Britta. “How Denmark has helped its homeless young people”.
The Guardian. 2017.
Manzini, Ezio. “Design, When Everybody Designs, An Introduction to Design for Social Innovation.” The MIT Press. Cambridge. 2015.
Martinsen, Britta. “How Denmark has helped its homeless young people”. The Guardian. 2017.
Masuda, Greg. “The Right to Remain.” Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 2015.
“Plans to End Homelessness”. Homeless Hub. 2017. http://homelesshub.ca/solutions/ plans-end-homelessness
Plewnia, Frederik; Guenther, Edeltraud. uwf UmweltWirtschaftsForum, 2017, Vol. 25 (1), pp. 117–124. [Peer Review Journal]
Rittel, Horst W.J., Webber, Melvin M. “Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning”. Policy Sciences 4. Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam. 1973. p. 155–169.
Smith, Craig. “Homeless Find a Champion in Canada’s Medicine Hat”. New York Times. 2017.
Van Lier, Bas. “No Doubt That We Need Design to Solve Mankind’s Problems.” Climate Action and What Design Can Do. 2017.
Vanwynsberghe, Surborg, and Wyly, “When the Games Come to Town”; “Canada Canada — National Strategies to Address Homelessness.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. 2013.
Wood, Jessica. “Finland Shows the World How to End Chronic Homelessness.”
Culture Trip. 2017.
Woodward, Eberle, Kraus, Goldberg. Regional Homelessness Plan for Greater Vancouver. Regional Steering Committee on Homelessness. 2001.
ChangeCatalyst 