What is transition design and why is the transition challenge significant in this historical moment
by Stefano Panariti
Mistrust in politics, failure of the leadership, lack of visions
We are living in an interesting historical moment in which a shift towards a radical change is ‘in the air’, but at the same time it is not plainly clear in which direction are we going.
The worldwide political and economical instability and the recent failure of the leadership, made evident through Brexit and the election of US President Trump, are creating enough dissatisfaction and disillusion to make the changes urgent. What is surely needed is a new degree of inclusion that will enable and involve everyone in the transition process our societies are facing.
Therefore it is important to consider that who is making decisions and framing the incoming world is without visions of a sustainable and more equal future. So the question is who’s the responsibility/capability to create and address new visions/versions of the future?
Before trying to answer this question let’s understand what the sustainability is.
Sustainable development: no magic formulas, embrace the complexity!
A sustainable development has to take in consideration the complexity of global systems our world is composed of, their interaction and their unpredictability.
How do the economic, the social, the environmental, the political, the cultural systems fit together?
How can we create a world that is both prosperous, environmentally sustainable and fair, so that the quantity of the population, and the world’s economy don’t overrun the physical planet itself?
What can be meant by a “good society”?
Humanity is actually changing the climate, deciding what specie survive on the planet, modifying the chemistry of the oceans, ruining the safety of the air, limiting the access and availability of freshwater, exploiting and devastating resources… At the same time the wealth obtained through the labour in the current system is not distributed equally, the society is profoundly unequal. This inequality is not limited just to the distribution of the economic well being, it concerns also the basic human rights and the respect for the cultural differences. A more prosperous and inclusive, environmentally sustainable and well governed society is a probably the ideal aim. Why this is so difficult?
One of the issues is in how the sustainability itself has been and it is still framed and considered. The concept was born in the Brundtland Report in 1987. “That document was concerned with the tension between the aspirations of mankind towards a better life on the one hand and the limitations imposed by nature on the other hand. In the course of time, the concept has been re-interpreted as encompassing three dimensions, namely social, economic and environmental.” (2010 Kuhlman et al, 3436)
The three dimensions social economic and environment are commonly known as the 3P: People, Profit, Planet. The three dimensions social, economic and environmental are commonly known as the 3P or ‘Pillars’: People, Profit, Planet. The concept of sustainability has been integrated afterwards (for example the Seven principles of sustainability formulated by Robert Gibson) but the three ‘pillars’ are still used as the basic (and very limited) synthesis of what sustainability is about. In the Agenda for Development United Nations defined the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that has to be reached worldwide by the 2030.
According to Kuhlman and Farrington there’s a need of reviewing the meaning of sustainability including the concepts of Happiness, Well-being and Welfare. From this re-consideration the two authors trace a new definition of sustainability: Maintaining well-being over a long, perhaps even an indefinite period (2010 Kuhlman et al, 3441) and they include also the cultural heritage (art, cultural landscapes, infrastructures, technology and institutions) among the resources/capitals that has to be taken in consideration and conserved for the posterities.
Transition Design and challenges
As we said above, a profound change in our society is needed, as much as new approaches able to solve the wicked problems linked to sustainability, go over the established systems and overcome the many lock-ins that are keeping the status quo immutable.
Terry Irvin in Transition Design: a proposal for a new area of Design Practice, Study and Research, defines and frames the Transition Design. From his perspective, TD is composed by four interlinked key concepts areas:
Vision for Transition: there is a dialogical relationship between design practice and the production of future oriented visions of the world. Visions are able to inform and inspire projects, but projects can provide tools and methods that will help producing new visions. “Transition visioning’s conceived as a circular, iterative and error-friendly process that could be used to envision radically new ideas for the future that serve to inform even small, modest design in the present.”
Theories of change: the deep understanding of the dynamics of change can be efficient just if transdisciplinarly informed and able to set new approaches to design and problem solving.
Mindset and Posture: it can be compared to the ‘ancient’ concept of Weltangschauung. The mindset can be individual or collective and it “represent beliefs, values, assumptions and expectations that are formed by our individual experiences, cultural norms, religious/spiritual beliefs and the socioeconomic and political paradigm to which we subscribe.”
New ways of Designing: From this perspective for the designer that affords sustainable transition it is really important to have an interdisciplinary knowledge, and to train his perception of reality to be enough sharp and agile to afford the wicked problems and find the appropriate solutions.
Transition Designers have the skill, foresight, and ability to connect different types of solution (service design or social innovation solutions) together for greater leverage (solutions’ ability to co-evolve) and impact because they are connected to, and guided by, a longer term objective or vision. (2015 Irvin, 237)
On how technological systems and innovation can be useful for the transition we cite the Director of the Danish Design Center:
“The technological development accelerates and initiates many new transition processes, mainly in companies but also in the public sector, which of course plays a key role in Denmark. Technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), 3D printing and new open-source platforms are going to present challenges to organisational and business models and cause many jobs to be transformed or to disappear entirely.” Christian Bason (Dansk Design Center)
What roles have engineers had in the development of tecnological systems?
When talking about change, the way a transition is achievable in technological system and how could engineers affect the entire system, it is interesting to look at the engineer’s role in a broad and general understanding.
Furthermore this part will be implemented with the answers to the other questions.
- Design a transition strategy using inspiration from SNM or TIS;
- Design a transition strategy using inspiration from AoD or TM;
- How can Sustainable Design Engineers support the needed transition sustainability?
Engineers’ roles have mutated in human history, from characters in society which have the possibility to be known because of the their knowledge in military matters and being leaders of society by mastering technological change. Leonardo da Vinci before being a talented architect, draftsman, anatomist, musician, he was an engineer and inventor. His wise knowledge was the key of his genius inventions, he was not just a thinker but he was able to apply science and mathematical methods to projects and machines. Man with broad knowledge and complex skills he was able to take decisions, invent and optimize solutions by his own.
With the passage of time, a subdivision of scientific knowledge has been required and therefore defined a subdivision in science and engineering, which makes extensive use of mathematical and physical methods to produce artifacts. They are part of applied science as the main enforcement tool such as technology, that often combines scientific methods of different types for the study and development of production processes, thus there has been an extreme specialisation in niche fields, which required a differentiation of the language spoken. Such a deepen use of language created at the extreme non-understating from both part.
In the last century the role engineers used to have was of inventing and optimizing solutions working in private companies. They received an education oriented to deliver, where the owner set a goal and engineers have to design with the goal of making “anything” possible. According to Downey and Lucena, the engineers’ education has to be reformed expanding and enhancing students experiences with engineering design. Currently the the main responsibility in engineering problem solving is to keep one’s self out of the process, acknowledge the prior existence of an established method, and prove you can do it too. Engineers role has shifted and it will keep shifting in the next years. An interesting direction is created from the challenge which sustainable design engineer are facing, where they are supposed to develop products and networks, which can transform systems of consumption and production to be more sustainable. Therefore it is not possible to come up with the final solution ourselves, because it requires a gathered, coordinated action. It combines thus sustainable product design with tools from innovation theory, practice theory and user-oriented design. Visualisation and experimentation are important strategies to develop new innovative solutions, which can overcome system dependencies and achieve sustainable system transformation in various societal sectors.
References
- Irwin, T. (2015). Transition design: A proposal for a new area of design practice, study, and research. Design and Culture, 7(2), 229- 246.
- STRN, A mission statement and research agenda for the Sustainability Transitions Research Network
- http://danskdesigncenter.dk/en/news/big-transistion-calls-radical-inclusion
- Downey, G., & Lucena, J. U. A. N. (2003). When students resist: Ethnography of a senior design experience in engineering education. International Journal of Engineering Education, 19(1), 168-176.
- Mom, G., & Kirsch, D. A. (2001). Technologies in tension: Horses, electric trucks, and the motorization of american cities, 1900-1925. Technology and Culture, 42(3), 489-518.
- Norton, P. D. (2007). Street rivals: Jaywalking and the invention of the motor age street. Technology and Culture, 48(2), 331-359.
- Kuhlman, T., & Farrington, J. (2010). What is sustainability?. Sustainability, 2(11), 3436-3448.
The Transitioner 