Applying Theory of Change to strategy articulation cycles in design projects:: Potentials and shortcomings through the Designscapes case study (original) (raw)

Applying Theory of Change to strategy articulation cycles in design projects

Strategic Design Research Journal, 2021

Since the 1990s, the framework of Theory of Change has been used to address complex contexts of intervention especially in relation to planning and evaluating social practice. Theory of Change can be defined as the systematic and cumulative study of the links between the activities, outcomes, and context of an intervention. The aim of this paper is to explore through a case study whether Theory of Change can support more strategic approaches in design. In particular, the paper examines how Theory of Change was applied to DESIGNSCAPES - a project oriented, among other things, toward offering a supporting service for all those city actors interested in using design to develop urban innovation initiatives that tackle complex issues of broad concern.

Articulating a strategic approach to face complexity in design projects

Conference Proceedings of the Academy for Design Innovation Management

In today’s world of global wicked problems, constraints and imperatives imposed by an external and uncertain environment render strategic action a quite complex endeavour. Since the 1990s, within community initiatives and philanthropic projects, the construct of Theory of Change has been used to address such complexity. Theory of Change can be defined as the systematic and cumulative study of the links between the activities, outcomes, and context of an intervention. The area of focus for this paper is to explore whether Theory of Change can support more strategic approaches in design. In particular, the paper examines how Theory of Change was applied to DESIGNSCAPES - a project oriented, among other things, toward offering a supporting service for all those city actors interested in using design to develop urban innovation initiatives that tackle complex issues of broad concern.

Strategic Thinking, Design and the Theory of Change

2023

This book offers insights into how the Theory of Change framework can be effectively employed in a wide range of social interventions. Presenting its potential to support strategy and strategic thinking, this book offers an entry point to understanding how Theory of Change can be applied beyond the typical domain of aid projects.

Approaching Change with and in Design

She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation Volume 6, Issue 4, Winter 2020, Pages 505-529, 2020

Design practice is intrinsically about change and changing the world. Over the past two decades several new areas have emerged within design, such as service design, design thinking, speculative design, transition design and social design. What constitutes a desirable design outcome has also evolved. New design processes exist to enable those outcomes, and broader, more diverse communities often contribute to collective changemaking. Despite this, we still have a fragmented understanding of how to use design to create change, with a limited number of frameworks to guide its implementation in public and private settings. This article provides a brief overview of the recent developments in and through design that relate to how and why the usage of design has changed and how we design change. I look at the products, processes, and people related to change in design, and how design practice has fostered new roles in the field. In depth interviews with expert designers, and their insights about these roles, have been used to open up the discussion of what questions designers are aiming to define and answer, with whom, and how. Keywords Design thinking Speculative design Sustainability design Transition design Participatory design Social design

Designing Change - professional mutations in urban design 1980-2020

NAI010 Publishers, 2019

Over the timespan of just one generation the planet’s pace of urbanization has dramatically increased. Through these dynamics and its resulting environmental threats, new challenges have emerged that deeply question the validity of the post-war planning paradigms. Dominant ideologies have been replaced by a problem-solving attitude, increased economic pressure and an urgent quest for evidence. What impact does this have on the work of the urban designer and planner, and how can the profession prepare for the future? Designing Change tries to answer these and many other questions through in-depth conversations with 12 leading practitioners in the field. Conceived as an unpartisan contribution to the discourse about the future of the built environment, Designing Change offers an unorthodox combination of case-study analysis and theoretical debate. It addresses the topic’s complexity through a rigorous focus on process, client relationship and development initiative.

A Triplet Under Focus: Innovation, Design and the City

Innovation Capacity and the City, 2018

The role of design in innovation processes is a trendy topic in current debates on business development and competitiveness. Design activities and methods are to be adopted by firms and companies in order to fully exploit their potential and survive in a highly competitive globalized market. There is a great focus on the capability of design processes to integrate business and societal goals in the definition of new products, services, and instruments in response to the great challenges facing the contemporary world. Design has grown in appeal by identifying itself with a series of tools and codified processes and approaches, which manage to face complexity while cultivating an action/solution oriented approach (Scholl 1995). Nevertheless, design and innovation are multifaceted/manifold concepts that need to be explored and understood in their full spectrum: What do we consider innovation? How do innovation processes work? What design approaches better contribute to innovation

Interrogating the Value of Design Research for Change

The Design Journal, 2020

This paper examines different types of value created by design research in the UK. Given the significant economic, social and environmental challenges we currently face, funding bodies and governments are increasingly concerned with assessing the value and impact of design research. The value generated by design research is not always clearly articulated by the academic community and understood by the public. With this in mind, this paper examines a sample of 67 projects that traverse conceptual, disciplinary and methodological boundaries representing the spread of contemporary design research in the UK. The paper presents an innovative 4-leaf value model that integrates different value theories from economics, sustainable development, and the social sciences. The paper highlights that design research plays a significant role in generating social, cultural, economic and environmental change, outlines synergies between the different types of value produced, and identifies gaps for design researchers to focus on in future years.