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Design for Political Engagement: Mapping the Factors that Drive Brazilian Youth out of the Political Sphere

Fernandes, Fernanda E

Abstract Details

2017, MDES, University of Cincinnati, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Design.
Brazil currently experiences a lack of political participation and engagement by young adults, i.e., people aged 18 to 34 years old. Despite constituting a significant segment of the Brazilian population, young adults are playing a smaller role in formal politics now than in past generations. Recent popular uprisings throughout the world, such as the Occupy and Arab Spring movements, have demonstrated that the inclusion of youth in politics can be a creative force, contributing and promoting important changes to political systems. Lack of political education, unreliable information, and poor self-identification with government ideals and representatives are common barriers to political engagement. Coupled with disbelief in the country’s currently unstable political climate and limited knowledge of locally available political resources, these factors prevent young Brazilians from fostering interest and engaging in their country’s decision-making process. As a result, representatives are disconnected from the needs and ambitions of their younger electorate, and are prone to become lackadaisical in performing their political duties. To reverse this trend, it is necessary to rebuild youth's perception of politics, empowering young adults by helping them understand their potential for taking control of their future through a more symbiotic participation in the political process. This thesis begins with an effort to contribute to the understanding of this complex issue by mapping the principal factors that drive Brazilian youth out of the political sphere. It explores the potential of Design to articulate the problem’s complexity and to identify insights and key intervention opportunities for improvement. Starting at the micro-level, through a historical research and statistical data analysis, this research identifies different political subsets of Brazilian youth and profiles and visualizes their current levels of political engagement. This visualization is then elaborated into personas that are representative of each political subset. Finally, the most critical (least politically engaged) subset of the youth generation is positioned back into the macro-level to allow the identification and unveiling of new sets of Design opportunities to be further explored and analyzed in future work.
Craig Vogel, M.I.D. (Committee Chair)
Dennis Puhalla, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Brian Schumacher (Committee Member)
93 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Fernandes, F. E. (2017). Design for Political Engagement: Mapping the Factors that Drive Brazilian Youth out of the Political Sphere [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1491305887634181

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Fernandes, Fernanda. Design for Political Engagement: Mapping the Factors that Drive Brazilian Youth out of the Political Sphere. 2017. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1491305887634181.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Fernandes, Fernanda. "Design for Political Engagement: Mapping the Factors that Drive Brazilian Youth out of the Political Sphere." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1491305887634181

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)