Broadening our responsibility via systemic thinking in design
DESCRIPTION
Designers are thinking and feeling responsible well beyond the scope of their current projects. This is observable across many design fields (service, strategy, product, graphic etc.), and in academia too. We are drawn to greater movements that contextualise and give meaning to our life’s work, such as responding to climate change, addressing inequalities, lifting the barriers of poverty. These problems require systemic thinking to comprehend larger forces at play and plot the contribution of any design activity.
One of type of systems to look at, are socio-technical systems. A socio-technical system is a social system sitting upon a technical base. It recognises the interaction between people and technology. In modern socio-technical systems, knowledge of social principles can mean the difference between success and failure. But what are these principles? And how to create and increase impact?
This talk, delivered by Dr Rebecca Price, will engage service designers in systemic thinking. Reflecting on challenging system transitions currently occurring in the Netherlands, Rebecca will demonstrate ways to make sense of socio-technical system performances and offer strategies to increase impact. The session will conclude with a call to shift rhetoric from solutionism to interventionism in design in order to negotiate the unique nature of designing socio-technical transitions.
If you like to further broaden your responsibility via systemic thinking in design, and learn how to put theory and tools into practice, then join the workshop that Rebecca will give during the Service Design Days 2021 in Barcelona.
OUTCOMES
Dive into socio-technical systems
Shift from solutionism to interventionism
Learn about new methodological opportunities for design to increase impact
Find ways to catalyse potent forms of human collaboration
FORMAT
The talk will happen live via Zoom.
STUDY POINTS
This talk is worth 1 SDC study point.
KEYWORDS
Systemic design, systems thinking, framing, design thinking, case study
360° SERIES
ABILITY 05 - COPE WITH COMPLEXITY
LEVEL - EXERCISE
360° SERIES
ABILITY 05 - COPE WITH COMPLEXITY
LEVEL - EXERCISE
* Approximately EUR 16,50. Prices are exclusive of VAT. Non-EU citizens are exempt from VAT on e-services which includes online courses, workshops and talks.
Meet the speaker
Rebecca Price (Australia) is researcher and Assistant Professor of Transition Design and Senior Comenius Fellow at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at Delft University of Technology.
Educated and practiced as an industrial designer, Rebecca was quickly drawn to the strategic potential of design as source of resilience, and so pursued a PhD in design-led innovation at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. Now at TU Delft, she works with public and private organisations to support the application of design upon complex innovation challenges. While the predominant domain of her work to date has been mobility (aviation, automotive, urban transport), her methodological research in particular holds increasing value to domains related to public health and energy transitions that stem from a socio-technical perspective of the possibilities of design.
Rebecca holds a BDes (Industrial Design) and Doctorate degree (Philosophy) from Queensland University of Technology. She lectures and coaches students on design strategy, innovation, socio-technical systems, transitions, and mobility.
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