[ A Series of Lectures in Design Theory ]

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EZIO MANZINI, DIS-Indaco, Politecnico di Milano | 20. 3. 2008

DESIGN FOR SOCIAL INNOVATION
Creative Communities, Collaborative Networks and Design

Observing society as a whole in all its contradictions, we see that, alongside numerous, unfortunately extremely worrying tendencies, there are also emerging signals that indicate the existence of promising examples of social innovation, in particular, designing networks (creative communities1 and collaborative networks2), the results of which can be considered positive steps towards sustainability. (Even if, at the moment, such networks represent a minority, they are linked to certain major current trends, such as demographic change, growing environmental pressures, and evolution towards a knowledge-based network society.)

The chance that these weak signals might strengthen, spread and become part of the mainstream is, at the moment, little more than a possibility. Its realisation will depend on several interconnected factors, one of them being what designers will do (will be able and willing to do) to enhance this social innovation and steer it in more sustainable directions.

What does it mean to design for the very particular kinds of social innovation that characterize contemporary society? What does it mean to steer designing networks in more sustainable directions? What conceptual and practical tools are needed? To steer and help guide the new designing networks, designers must use specific capabilities and skills. They have to be able to recognise promising cases of social innovation, to make them more visible and to understand them better. And, finally, they have to do their part in making these promising cases more accessible, effective and reproducible.

1 Creative community: This refers to groups of people who co-operatively invent, enhance and manage innovative solutions for new ways of living. This concept has been focalised in the framework of EMUDE research. EMUDE was a Special Support Action promoted as part of the 6th Framework Program (priority 3-NMP) of the European Commission. EMUDE was coordinated by INDACO, Politecnico di Milano, and was developed by ten research centres and universities and eight European schools of design. EMUDE ended in April 2006, but the same line of research is now continuing in another, recently launched, European research project called LOLA – Looking for likely alternatives, and in another global programme, CCSL-Creative Communities Sustainable Lifestyles, promoted by the Sustainable Lifestyle Task Force, founded by the Swedish Government and endorsed by the United Nations Environmental Program. See also:
[ http://www.sustainable-everyday.net ].

2 Collaborative networks: These are networks that are able to catalyze large numbers of interested people, organise them in a peer-to-peer modality, build a common vision and a common direction, and develop even very complex projects either on a global scale (e.g. Wikipedia) or locally (e.g. Meet-Up, SmartMobs and the BBC Action network). To quote the British Design Council, which refers to such phenomena by the term “open models”, they are new forms of organisation that do not rely “on mass participation in the creation of the service. The boundary is blurred between the users and producers of a service. It is effectively often impossible to differentiate between those who are creating the service and those who are the consumers or users of the output.”

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Ezio Manzini currently teaches at the Politecnico di Milano, where he is the director of the Unit of Research Design and Innovation for Sustainability and the co-ordinator of the doctoral programme in industrial design. His recent publications include, with François Jegou, Sustainable Everyday (Milan: Edizioni Ambiente, 2003) and, with B. D. Leong, Design Vision: A Sustainable Way of Living in China (Ningnan, China: Ningnan Publishing House Ltd., 2006). He is considered by many to be one of the most important thinkers in design today.

[ Sustainable Everyday Project: Ezio Manzini's Blog ]
[ Change Design: Ezio Manzini's unpublished manuscripts and a linked bibliography ]
[ Changing the Change: research conference focused on the design research potentialities ]

[ Schedule ]