Critical Conversations
I Am Not Kidding : Childfree by Choice - Research and Reflections
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Shruthi Manjula Balakrishna
“Pronatalism” means “pro-baby.” It is the idea that parenthood and raising children should be the central focus of every person’s adult life. The book, Pronatalism: The Myth of Mom and Apple Pie, defines pronatalism as “...an attitude or policy that is pro-birth, that encourages reproduction, that exalts the role of parenthood.” Pronatalism is a strong social force that glorifies parenthood and includes a collection or beliefs deeply embedded that they have come to be seen as “true.” Thanks to celebrities and the media, pregnancy and the raising of children is glamorized like no other time in the history. Pronatalism leads everyone to believe that they should have children. It also leads people to believe that they have the right to have as many children as they want. It’s time to take another hard look at pronatalism and it’s assumptions. This research project and comic series is the manifesto to ignite a transition into a society that can respect and support true reproductive freedom and choice. I selected a humous approach for design and vocabulary to open the stage for parents, childfree, and the childless. The comic series urges people considering the childfree lifestyle to refuse to “follow-the-pack” because the society expects us to conform to tradition. And to carefully consider the long-term implications of creating new lives and subsequently deciding against is empowering. This project is not against parents. It’s about looking closer at the pronatal situation at hand in order to see the truth about parenthood and reproduction.
Design for Small Stories: Transient Community in Transforming Neighborhood
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jen Yoohyun Lee
What does a ‘community’ mean to the contemporaries? In the era of rapid transition and heterogeneity, the sense of community is difficult to define. Regeneration of neighborhoods is inevitable, as urbanization and retrogression accelerate concurrently. Howbeit, the prevalent regeneration approach has withered the traditional structures of community. The concept of community is in flux more than ever due to the rapid infusion of newcomers in neighborhoods. Employing narratives emerged as an alternative means of community inclusion in the redevelopment process to enhance the idea of locality. The prevailing master narratives provide a sense of direction; however, they tend to overpower the meanings embodied in places as well as the collective personal memories of residents. The value of small stories, as opposed to master narratives, lies in their reflection of psychological truths accumulated over time that constitute locality. What, then, does it mean to recount for the contemporary transient community? This study investigates the cases of neighborhoods in Asia undergoing transformations in terms of physical and demographic formation. The aim of the study is to understand the implication of such small stories in today’s neighborhoods and probe how the design of artistic intervention in the regeneration process can facilitate small stories to lay the ground for the residents to build trust and hope within their transient community in order to overcome the fear of insecurity that abounds among the contemporaries.
