In design we trust: design, governmentality, and the tangibility of governance

Abstract

This paper explores the implications of how government is made tangible through designed artifacts, communications, experiences, and environments. Framed by Michel Foucault's concept of governmentality, it addresses how trust in just government is at stake when people feel unable to guide their own 'conduct of conduct.' I suggest areas of emerging design research at the intersections of policy design, innovation and design promotion policy, and design standards. These are framed by three assertions: (1) policy is designed and thus open to designing by people, (2) national design policies (formal or informal) should support the role of design in public sector governance, and (3) when design functions as a way of making governance tangible to everyday people, it makes governance open to the participatory redesigns by those people.