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ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Designing a Digital Centralized Knowledgebase for Workers and Organizers to Build Better Unions

Maddux, Joshua
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1649768536435663

Abstract Details

2022, MDES, University of Cincinnati, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Design.
Unions have existed in the United States since it was founded in 1776. Unions, often referred to as labor unions, have existed in a variety of ways and scales of membership. Despite, or perhaps because of, unions’ well-documented capacity to improve the wages, benefits, and working conditions of their members, they have been consistently and systematically resisted by the holders of capital since the very beginning. Largely as a result of this ongoing conflict, unions in recent years in the United States have been marred by historically low union density and a declining unionization rate. Despite evidence that an increasing number of people would join a union if offered and an even larger number of Americans who generally support the labor movement, the situation has not improved overall. This paper provides further context for the decline in unionization, the issues surrounding them today, their benefits and shortcomings, as well as alternative forms of organizing being practiced to address the absence of unions. This context ultimately serves as the justification for my design, which is a digital platform that functions as a centralized hub for information on organized labor and as a platform to discuss organized labor. It would serve the purpose of addressing the lack of resources available to workers today and provide a space for people to engage in discussion on related topics. The first iteration of this is a website, but it would ultimately become part of a greater ecosystem of products, software, tools, and resources, as features are added on. The educational portion of the website would display information to learn about unions, alternative forms of organized labor and collective action, shortcomings of the modern unionization system, as well as a broad overview of the labor movement and its role in modern society. An online forum or discussion board would provide a centralized channel where people can go to discuss the information on the homepage or other relevant information. This can help to expedite the exchange of knowledge and generate new and better ideas. It would also promote additional traffic to the site. Finally, a page dedicated to additional resources would connect visitors and users to other platforms that provide educational materials on organizing efforts and an active list of ongoing organizing efforts going on around the country.
Stirling Shelton, M.F.A. (Committee Member)
Craig Vogel, M.I.D. (Committee Member)
42 p.
Design
Unions; Labor; Web Design; Alternative Organizing

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Maddux, J. (2022). Designing a Digital Centralized Knowledgebase for Workers and Organizers to Build Better Unions [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1649768536435663

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Maddux, Joshua. Designing a Digital Centralized Knowledgebase for Workers and Organizers to Build Better Unions. 2022. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1649768536435663.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Maddux, Joshua. "Designing a Digital Centralized Knowledgebase for Workers and Organizers to Build Better Unions." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2022. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1649768536435663

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1649768536435663
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© 2022, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Designing a Digital Centralized Knowledgebase for Workers and Organizers to Build Better Unions by Joshua Maddux is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.