The University of Washington is developing large-scale, multidisciplinary responses to help realize transformative, positive impact against society’s biggest challenges. These responses, or strategic initiatives, seek to combine the unique strengths and expertise of multiple campuses, schools and colleges in novel and innovative ways. One of the emerging initiatives is this one, which focuses on the strengthening of civic and democratic norms, processes and institutions.
A core team of designers spent the last several months of the 2023-24 academic year engaging in a participatory – and democratic – process to imagine how the University of Washington might support largescale improvements to our civic health. Key to the participatory design process has been the use of a planning tool known as the chaordic stepping stones, which supports complex planning efforts and is guiding the core design team through its work.
The contents of this website contain the vision, pillars of work and other key elements of this initiative that have been developed to date.
