This workshop intends to introduce participants to some basic concepts, approaches and methods in systemic design and designing for socio-technical transitions. We will start by exploring definitions of systemic and transition design, move on to discussing a few frameworks and concepts useful for observing, analyzing, and describing socio-technical systems, and end with a discussion of a specific framework and method, Frank Geel’s Multi-Level Perspective, which we will then attempt to apply in a short online exercise. By the end of this course, participants should have developed an appreciation for the value of applied systems and transitions management theory, a better sense of how to create rich and useful visualizations and models of systemic phenomenon, where and how to design interventions to tackle wicked problems, and be in a better position to gauge the efficacy of, and take responsibility for, the consequences of their designed actions.
This workshop is offered by Ahmed Ansari.
Mr Ansari is an assistant professor of practice at NYU. His research interests intersect between design studies, cultural theory, and the philosophy and history of technology in the Indian subcontinent. He also founded the Decolonizing Design platform and of the Architectural Design Research Lab in Karachi, Pakistan. He is also a member of the Decolonizing Design platform, and does decolonial critiques of contemporary design discourse and practice, as well as exploring non-western histories and philosophies of technology through his work.
