Transition Innovation
A journey at the crossroads of social, economic, political and ecological contexts
In this module, DESIGN STATION offers a workshop focused on the Transition Innovation approach, which is based on the dynamics of complex systems and applies the tools and processes of design to “exploit” these dynamics.
The Transition Design approach invites to define visions of sustainable and desirable long term futures. These co-created visions act both as a magnet, to attract stakeholders towards a desired future, and as a roadmap to get there. Backcasting the vision to the present creates a ‘transition path’ along which projects and initiatives in the present and the medium term can be located, becoming ‘steps’ in a longer transition.
In this module, participants will be exposed to a holistic exploration approach aimed to integrate into the innovation process the consideration of the general and specific context. This approach will help to anticipate change more quickly and take advantage of the situations that arise by taking action rather than reacting to upheaval through regenerative innovation.
METHOD :
Thinking contextually to understand complex systems.
Most design approaches decontextualise problems in order to solve them more quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively (narrow view of problems).
Backcasting from a co-created future vision creates a backwards “transition path” along which new and existing projects can be connected and positioned as “steps” in a long transition to the desired future.
The wicked problems of our socio-technical-ecological systems can only be solved if they are highly contextualised (broadened view of the problems) by understanding how the different contextual elements interact and change with each other.
PEDAGOGICAL OBJECTIVE :
To rethink and question the creative mindset of designers and understand the challenges of the Transition Innovation process. To help designers to position themselves in a context of ecological, economic and societal tensions.
Discovery Workshop - 1 day (7 Hours)
Morning 9am - 12pm
- What is transition innovation
- Thinking contextually
- State of the art and key to understanding the global context
- Contextual analysis map
- Characteristics of complex systems
- Diagnosis: from a static to a dynamic and regenerative approach
- Examples
Q&A
In plenary session:
Definition of the company's focal issue.
In order to reach a common understanding of the problem, participants identify the complex problem related to the focal issue and create a visual map of the factors and root causes, ramifications and consequences related to this problem.
They then draw the interconnections and interdependencies between these factors, including tangible artefacts and systems infrastructure, values, beliefs, behaviours, policies, emotions and other intangible factors.
The aim is to visualise the complex system(s) that form(s) the context, which is composed of polarities and tensions and conflicting agendas.
Afternoon 2pm - 5pm
Group session: development of the creative process within the different interest groups.
In each working group, we first need to look at the aspects of long-term futures in relation to the theme
- Back-projection to create transition paths for the 'near' and
and "medium-term" visions, projects and initiatives - After reaching a common understanding of the problem, the participants started a "futuring" exercise in which they tried to imagine the aspects of place-based lifestyles in which the problems would have been solved
Once a long-term vision of future lifestyles has been developed, participants 'backcast' from this vision to create a transition pathway that guides the development of a first set of tangible projects and initiatives.
In the final phase, participants discuss the process and how it differs from or contributes to traditional design approaches.
Participants capture the key issues that the process revealed as well as any implicit assumptions that hindered the process or were a source of tension or divergence of opinion among participants. In a final brainstorming session, participants record specific questions and assumptions about the transitional innovation process itself.
The result of this day will be a concept book and will be materialised by a use case in relation to the focal issue developed for each interest group. A summary booklet will be produced by Design Station and sent to participants in digital form.
