Continuous re-configuring of invisible social structures
Yoko Akama · RMIT Research Repository (RMIT University Library) · 2015
In the context of large scale 'wicked problems' (Rittel and Webber, 1973) such as natural disasters, no one entity can tackle this problem alone. Centralized, one-size-fits-all approaches to policy and service delivery are increasingly recognized as being ineffectual due to the diverse character and needs of communities (COAG 2011; Burns et al, 2006). As such, in the last ten years, design has become increasingly viewed as a means of harnessing latent creativity and enabling social innovation in organizations and communities to address entrenched issues and effect change for the social and public good. These are explored in fields such as design for social innovation, service design and participatory design, to name a few. These fields pursue ways to support designing that are performed by non-design experts that can bring local knowledge and specific competences. People involved in projects can then become collaborative co-designers and co-producers with the ability to draw on their 'creativity, organizational capabilities and entrepreneurship, and therefore capable of figuring out, enhancing and managing new solutions' (Manzini and Rizzo 2011, p. 201). Designing here is seen as a way to enhance the creativity and inventiveness of ordinary people to tackle problems in their daily lives. This chapter presents an example of designing to catalyse a transformative process through unlocking tacit knowledge and revealing hidden relational structures.