DESIGN THINKING AS A CULTURAL METHOD: A PHILOSOPHICAL AND CULTURAL ANALYSIS OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF NORMS (A CASE STUDY OF THE “PERVENETS” PROJECT)

The article is devoted to the philosophical and cultural analysis of design thinking (human-centered design) as a methodology that goes beyond product and service design and becomes a tool for cultural construction. The relevance of the study is due to the penetration of the logic and tools of design into the sphere of social and cultural policy, where not only services but also new social rituals, norms and identities are being designed. The case study is the "Pervenets" project implemented in St. Petersburg. The methodological basis is a synthesis of the philosophy of culture, biopolitics concepts (M. Foucault), Science and Technology Studies (STS) and performance theory. The empirical base is formed by the materials of the "Pervenets" project and the national project "Family", as well as the results of the author's previous research in the epistemology of advertising communication. The methods include semiotic analysis, discourse analysis, and user journey mapping. Results and discussion is shown that design thinking, based on the principles of empathy, iteration and prototyping, is transformed into a "cultural method". This method allows constructing new cultural forms through the design of user experience, where the individual ("user") and his/her trajectory (user journey) become objects of subtle management. Using the "Pervenets" project as an example, the key mechanisms of this process are identified: creating empathy maps for the target audience, scenario-based design of rituals of incorporation into the new status of a parent, and the development of material artifacts that carry normative messages. Special attention is paid to the process of quantification of parenthood, i.e., the translation of qualitative experience into measurable metrics, which creates the basis for a new type of cultural regulation. Conclusion is concluded that design thinking, as a cultural method, is a technology of "soft" biopolitics. It legitimizes deep intervention into the private sphere through the language of care, personalization and quality of life improvement, while simultaneously producing and imposing new socially acceptable cultural patterns. The research contributes to the theory of contemporary culture by conceptualizing the processes of projectization of social life and laying the theoretical foundation for a broader research outlined in the author's doctoral dissertation topic.