So, let's call this episode: 'But why designers? What's so special about designers?' And the reason I use that title is because when I look at some of the major problems in the world that we are trying to address, what designers can do is designers, first of all, are used to working with all the different experts in many different fields;
they're used to bringing them together to try to figure out what is needed from each discipline and put it together into a solution because design is not a field of analysis. Design is a field of *synthesis*. That is to say, we're a field of *doing* – actually doing something in the world. So, that's not your normal university discipline. Most university disciplines are all about studying the problem and having all sorts of wonderful theoretical results, which get published in all the scientific journals. *No*.
What we're trying to do is actually *solve the real problem* on the ground *with the people* who are being affected. So, we bring that approach – a focus on the people – and we work within the cultures. In fact, the best way of doing that is that *we don't do it*. We find the people already living there who are already starting to address the problem. They understand their culture. They understand what is possible and what is not possible. And let them drive the system – what we're calling 'community-driven design'.
But what we are able to do – most of the community-driven design approaches are actually solving the *symptoms* – and what we're able to do is help them get to the *underlying causes*, and also to bring in the *system approach* because individuals and small groups aren't capable of doing the very large work, to think of this as an entire system where everything has to come together – many, many different disciplines,
and, for that matter, the economics of the country are very important in solving the problem, and the politics of the country, and even world trade – the politics of world trade. These are all important. But designers have that skill, by *finding the right problem*, *bringing together the systems* and always a *focus upon the people* or – if you like – *upon humanity*. So, that's the power that designers have.