The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs

This is the forum for the Designing Collaborative Development  course with Fabiola Berdiel and Cynthia Lawson that meets Tuesdays at 6pm. If you are in the class and would like to join the group but do not have access to this class forum please register for a gpia.info account and then sign up for the group. Email help if you have any questions.

Faculty: Fabiola Berdiel   BerdielF@newschool.edu
Cynthia Lawson LawsonC@newschool.edu  
Office Hours by appointment


This course will offer students the opportunity to gain an understanding of key concepts and skills essential to become global consultants for small business enterprises focusing on social innovation, empowerment, and community development through design.  The course will prepare students to work with marginalized populations (women, indigenous groups, rural communities) by developing sustainable business models through needs-based capacity building, product and project design and development, and by establishing networks of collaboration.

During the first half of the Spring semester we will examine and practice skills in the areas of sustainable development, social entrepreneurship, microcredit and microfinance, business, marketing, media communication and documentation, design of products as well as community development models, and workshop facilitation in informal settings.  We will also look at case studies of marginalized groups exploring the possibilities of using market-based approaches involving innovative design and media as tools for development.

In the second half of the semester students will prototype a model in which they put into practice everything they have learned - testing and enacting the thoughts, assumptions, and ideas that have been generated in the first half of the semester. In summer, students may travel to various countries for the month of June/July to work directly with communities in developing countries*.

This unique, interdisciplinary course will bring together students from the Graduate Program in International Affairs, Milano The New School for Management, and Parsons The New School for Design under the premise that there is not a single expert but different knowledges that complement each other and can be exchanged through collaborations.