The world is rapidly transforming. Economic, ecological and technological developments transcend existing boundaries and challenge the way we innovate. The challenge we face is to reinvent innovation as well, changing the way organisations and industries innovate and cooperate. Only with a new approach we can design a better future: an approach where stakeholders from government, organisations, companies and users participate in new ways of collaboration; an approach where solutions are realised that makes our society future-proof. Participatory innovation means that the innovation team changes: expanding beyond the boundaries of the own organisation. For organisations and companies, this is a huge step. Every partner must be willing to think and act beyond their own borders and participate in a joint effort. Participative innovation is a new way of working, where new challenges are encountered. In the field of urban lighting, this transformation is strongly felt. This paper will further explore the challenge and describe a rich case study where participative innovation is used to rethink, redesign and realise the solutions to transform urban lighting from functional lighting to improving social quality.
In this paper we explore the influence of the physical and social environment (the design space) son the formation of shared understanding in multidisciplinary design teams. We concentrate on the creative design meeting as a microenvironment for studying processes of design communication. Our applied research context entails the design of mixed physical–digital interactive systems supporting design meetings. Informed by theories of embodiment that have recently gained interest in cognitive science, we focus on the role of interactive “traces,” representational artifacts both created and used by participants as scaffolds for creating shared understanding. Our research through design approach resulted in two prototypes that form two concrete proposals of how the environment may scaffold shared understanding in design meetings. In several user studies we observed users working with our systems in natural contexts. Our analysis reveals how an ensemble of ongoing social as well as physical interactions, scaffolded by the interactive environment, grounds the formation of shared understanding in teams. We discuss implications for designing collaborative tools and for design communication theory in general.
MULTIFILE
Academic design research often fails to contribute to design practice. This dissertation explores how design research collaborations can provide knowledge that design professionals will use in practice. The research shows that design professionals are not addressed as an important audience between the many audiences of collaborative research projects. The research provides insight in the learning process by design professionals in design research collaborations and it identifies opportunities for even more learning. It shows that design professionals can learn about more than designing, but also about application domains or project organization.
In order to achieve much-needed transitions in energy and health, systemic changes are required that are firmly based on the principles of regard for others and community values, while at the same time operating in market conditions. Social entrepreneurship and community entrepreneurship (SCE) hold the promise to catalyze such transitions, as they combine bottom-up social initiatives with a focus on financially viable business models. SCE requires a facilitating ecosystem in order to be able to fully realize its potential. As yet it is unclear in which way the entrepreneurial ecosystem for social and community entrepreneurship facilitates or hinders the flourishing and scaling of such entrepreneurship. It is also unclear how exactly entrepreneurs and stakeholders influence their ecosystem to become more facilitative. This research programme addresses these questions. Conceptually it integrates entrepreneurial ecosystem frameworks with upcoming theories on civic wealth creation, collaborative governance, participative learning and collective action frameworks.This multidisciplinary research project capitalizes on a unique consortium: the Dutch City Deal ‘Impact Ondernemen’. In this collaborative research, we enhance and expand current data collection efforts and adopt a living-lab setting centered on nine local and regional cases for collaborative learning through experimenting with innovative financial and business models. We develop meaningful, participatory design and evaluation methods and state-of-the-art digital tools to increase the effectiveness of impact measurement and management. Educational modules for professionals are developed to boost the abovementioned transition. The project’s learnings on mechanisms and processes can easily be adapted and translated to a broad range of impact areas.
Various studies suggest that the fashion and textile industry need to move away from traditional, extractive leadership models. Dreier et al. (2019) show how traditional top-down, hierarchical leadership approaches are not effective in fostering sustainability, and argued that a more collaborative, participative approach is needed to implement true and long-standing change. Moreover, research also shows how fashion and textile designers don’t see themselves as leaders but instead as ‘creators’ who employ others to manage their business and lead the team. This change in leadership is also necessary to achieve the European vision for Industry 5.0 (2022), which places the wellbeing of the worker at the centre of the production process. If we want to find solutions to the problems we face today, we need to change the way we think, lead, and do business. This calls for regenerative leadership which involves not only minimising negative impacts, but also actively working to restore and enhance the social ecological systems in which an industry operates. And since technology has become ubiquitous in every aspect of our lives (including business), it is important to explore its role in helping us become better regenerative leaders. With ReLead, The Hague University of Applied Sciences (THUAS) aims to amplify consortium partner i-did’s social and environmental impact. Since its inception in 2009, i-did has helped more than 400 people become gainfully employed while helping recycle almost 60.000 kgs of textile waste. This has been possible due to the transformation of i-did’s founder (Mireille Geijsen) from a creative designer, into a collaborative and mindful leader. The intended outcome of this project is to create a tech-enabled leadership transformation toolkit and leadership academy that helps creative designers transform into regenerative leaders.
In this project a design methodology for developing sustainable business models is developed and tested with local stakeholders. This project supports of the Interreg project Wildlife Economy.Client: Regionaal Landschap Kempen en Maasland
