Conference Agenda

Prospective design is a research program founded on critical dialogues between Global South and Global North philosophies of design. Prospective design expands the current work on designing sociotechnical transitions by including the contradiction between “forces of nature” and “human forces” as a structural feature of Western society, which generates patriarchal and feminist worldviews, colonies and metropolises, and capitalist and socialist economic systems. In prospective design, contradictions are sensed, expressed, and worked out through a structuralist design aesthetic founded on the concept of existential structures, i.e. an accumulated set of relationships needed to reproduce human life. Instead of changing them directly, this design aesthetic guides designers to prospect thriving relationships in their metastructures and infrastructures through a poetics of resensitization that reunites our bodies and minds.

One of the emergent approaches towards designing (for) transitions and transformations is the application of systemic design: the integration of systems theories and practice with design theories and practices. Within this field we identified two dominant perspectives and associate practices: using systemic visualisations as a sense-making tool of complex challenges, and ‘designing from within’ by means of collective designing by system stakeholders. In this paper we introduce a third perspective and practice that we call ‘systemic design reasoning’. This perspective combines the abductive reasoning logic of design with various systems theories and practices to develop ‘systemic design rationales’. We developed six systemic design principles to support this reasoning practice. Each principle is based on a specific systems theory and practice. We illustrate the principles with examples of their application in research and in education. We conclude with a research agenda to further the practice of systemic design reasoning.

Organizational transitions can evoke a range of reactions and emotions among employees, departments, stakeholders, and leaders. To effectively manage the transition, it is crucial to comprehend how organizations experience and design change to navigate the various challenges of the transition process. This study investigates how changes in the working environment of the catering staff of a convention centre in the Netherlands led to the formation of a close-knit community that not only embraced the change but also developed innovative approaches for addressing local and social challenges. We draw on interviews with 16 individuals from the organization and use social practice theory to show the interconnected elements of practices that collectively constitute a creative approach to change. The study reveals that leadership and support are crucial competencies for promoting the participation and engagement needed to turn a crisis into an opportunity for both the organization and its stakeholders.

The contexts of design are constantly changing, sometimes to the extent that once a ‘good’ designerly response to an issue, over time becomes increasingly problematic. Therefore, there is often a need to rethink design and its concepts. Programmatic design research may provide an exploratory space for inquiry through specific examples in relation to certain theoretical and conceptual framings. In this paper, we explore [dis/re]orientations towards design histories for creating alternative programmatic research spaces. We work through an everyday challenge, ‘Terms of Service’ (ToS), a regulatory mechanism amplifying power asymmetries in relating to data-intensive things. Disorienting design by making an odd association between today’s ToS and the ‘ornament’ in early industrial design, we explore resulting reorientations to rethink designing in this domain. Finally, we outline how [dis/re]orientations could be considered a speculative method for making a kind of ‘Programmatic Time Travel’, using reflections of pasts to reimagine designing for just futures.

Knowledge gaps persist in the emerging field ‘Design for Transitions’ (DfT). Our research builds on the ‘multi-level perspective’ (MLP), a core concept in DfT and the wider Transition Studies field, and we address critiques of the MLP in terms of social practices, agency and power. Grounded in a ‘Research through Design’ approach and learning from our prior work, we have carefully adapted and designed MLP tools. We elucidate design considerations for MLP tools from within our 'live' climate transition of a UK university – research conducted within a university about the university. Contributing to DfT, we present six ‘design criteria’ for MLP tools, which are critically discussed in terms of context-specificity and general MLP critiques. Towards advancing DfT, this paper addresses the question: What are some key design considerations in adapting the MLP in ways that are theoretically-grounded and widely applicable yet responsive to a particular context?