Risk Areas (E / FB / RE / Ø) are four control areas worth examining before evaluating a project through the lens of the profiling criteria. Their purpose is to capture what most often “slips through” in practice. If any one of these areas reveals a problem, we revise the PROPOSAL. We then filter it again through T/O/M so that it meets those conditions. Only then do we move on to the profiling stage, using the U1–U6 tools.
Which risk areas do we examine?
E — Egalitarianism / Access
Risk of a gap: the practice is “in use,” but only by a narrow group (for example, because of linguistic, economic, or accessibility-related exclusion).
⇒ Is access to the practice available financially, linguistically, and in terms of accessibility?
⇒ Who is not a user today, although they should be? (define who and why)
⇒ What forms of compensation or facilitation do we introduce? (care, transport, translation)
⇒ Who is not a user today, although they should be? (define who and why)
⇒ What forms of compensation or facilitation do we introduce? (care, transport, translation)
Where else should we pay attention to this?
U1 (intensity — user structure), U4 (locality — real co-decision-making), O (ownership / shared responsibility).
U1 (intensity — user structure), U4 (locality — real co-decision-making), O (ownership / shared responsibility).
FB — Flows and Boundaries
Risk of a gap: the project “works” locally, but shifts costs elsewhere (for example, through supply chains, waste, or transport).
⇒ Where do we source materials from?
⇒ What happens to products / outputs / waste after use?
⇒ Are there points at which costs are shifted onto other people / beings / places?
⇒ What happens to products / outputs / waste after use?
⇒ Are there points at which costs are shifted onto other people / beings / places?
Where else should we pay attention to this?
M (more-than-human and environmental impacts), U5 (resilience to side effects), U6 (transfer — without “colonising” new places).
M (more-than-human and environmental impacts), U5 (resilience to side effects), U6 (transfer — without “colonising” new places).
RE — Reflexivity
Risk of a gap: when designing an action, we place too much emphasis on what looks attractive in an application rather than on substantive solutions with the potential to change patterns of use. What is missing is the perspective of “what would happen if we were not there.”
⇒ Why are we not doing something? (What important thing are we consciously leaving out?)
⇒ Counterfactual: what would happen without the project?
⇒ Rebound effect: does the project’s visibility and popularity trigger an unintended increase in scale and burden, such that the real balance worsens despite good intentions?
⇒ Counterfactual: what would happen without the project?
⇒ Rebound effect: does the project’s visibility and popularity trigger an unintended increase in scale and burden, such that the real balance worsens despite good intentions?
Where else should we pay attention to this?
In the Conclusions, and with each U criterion.
In the Conclusions, and with each U criterion.
Ø — Cycle Closure
Risk of a gap: a situation in which the project is so bound to its form, contracts, infrastructure, or one person that it cannot be meaningfully ended, slimmed down, or transferred into someone else’s care without harm to people and place; in other words, there is no phase-out plan.
⇒ When and how do we end the practice / object? (criteria, timelines)
⇒ What remains after us: a positive trace (instructions, shared resources) and a zero trace (order, recycling)?
⇒ Who is responsible for phasing out the project (person / institution), and what budget do we have for closing it down?
⇒ What remains after us: a positive trace (instructions, shared resources) and a zero trace (order, recycling)?
⇒ Who is responsible for phasing out the project (person / institution), and what budget do we have for closing it down?
Where else should we pay attention to this?
T (durability without compulsion), U3 (maintenance — roles in phasing out), U5 (resilience — controlled degradation).
T (durability without compulsion), U3 (maintenance — roles in phasing out), U5 (resilience — controlled degradation).