(How) Can We Design Transitions? a TC Dialogue @ SRI2022

Transformative change is actually happening in real time, and policy, business and communities are engaging with it in different ways to address the challenges of sustainability. We can and should make a difference in whatever outcomes these transitions and transformations in the making will lead to. Do we get electric cars or reconceptualise our mobility systems to prioritize a vibrant urban life? Do we get commercial solar fields or a just energy transition? Do we get McVeggie or regional plant based diets?

If regular policies and market approaches stay in the lead, we are likely to get more of the same. If we want the more radical transitions, we need another strategy. One that is transformative and imaginative, and brings into practice the idea that we can design transitions and transformations: that we can actually make things happen.

To explore such a strategy for radical transitions, a group of researchers who focus on design, co-creation, participatory methods and transition management came together over the last year for an online dialogue to explore a transformative governance logic.

During this dialogue, we discussed what we have learned together about how the design community can respond to the increasing demand for insight and support for transitions and transformations toward long-term futures that are more sustainable, equitable and desirable.

We considered both the synergies and tensions between our overlapping fields and the processes and practices that have emerged, in which framing, envisioning, back-casting, experimentation and social learning are often key elements.

Panelists:

İdil Gaziulusoy, Sustainability scientist and design researcher, assistant professor of sustainable design, leader of NODUS sustainable design research group, Aalto University, Finland

Caroline Hummels, Director of Researching & Learning at the European Design Experience and Competency Centre, and Professor Transformative Qualities, Dep. of Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands

Femke Coops, Designer in residence, Design Impact Transition (DIT) Platform and Msc. Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands

Derk Loorbach, Professor and director of the Dutch Research Institute for Transitions (DRIFT) and academic lead of the Design, Impact, Transition (DIT) platform, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Watch the full dialog below, or read the transcript here. You can watch all 250 videos at SRI2022.org.