Future tense: How might design futures methods enable place-based systemic change?

如果我们要解决气候变化、生物多样性丧失和不平等等相互关联的“邪恶问题”，就需要新的解决问题的方法，以便在社会各个层面实现根本性的变革（世界观察研究所2013年，卡普拉和路易西2014年）。可持续性的定义是“在不损害后代能力的情况下满足当前需求的发展”（Bruntland, 1987）直接转化为现代城市生活方式的迫切需要，以减少十倍的消费（Charter和Tischner， 2001）。实现可持续发展的量化指标是一个包含在更广泛的行为和文化变革中的过程（Lockton, 2015），需要新的方法、工具和叙述（Beddington, 2010）。设计可以“将现有的情况改变为首选的情况”（Simon, 1999）。最近，设计专业知识被提倡为“促进本地创新的社会资源，设计师是创造和探索替代未来的集体循环的推动者”（jsamouu和Manzini 2008， Manzini 2015）。城市社会学是社会理论中的一个领域，它提供了一种流动的理解，认为城市是社会相遇和分裂的“基于地点”的场所，是政治和权力的领域，是象征性和物质景观（Tonkiss, 2005）。Lefebvre（1991）将空间视为社会建构的产物，通过关注参与者（个人和机构）在创造变化过程中的作用的本地情境化方法，为解决复杂的邪恶问题提供了一种有意义的方法。为了解决这些具有挑战性的整体概念，本提案借鉴了系统变化、设计思维和未来研究，并通过行动研究方法采取了基于地点的方法。这项研究计划是基于我作为未来论坛系统创新实验室高级设计师的工作背景，并建立在我之前作为建筑设计师和城市研究员的批判性设计经验之上。该提案的目的是对设计未来方法如何帮助催化基于地点的系统性变革进行形成性评估。我建议通过在行动研究方法下开展的两个工作流程来探讨这一问题。这种方法被描述为“对社会状况的研究，以提高其中行动的质量”（Elliott, 1991），是最合适的，因为它建立在我目前在Forum的工作基础上，并寻求进一步发展参与式设计的未来方法。工作流程（WS） 1：跨学科文献综述（第一年）研究问题：设计方法和未来研究领域如何为地方层面的系统性变革提供途径？建议的输出：对来自设计和未来领域的当前方法的评估，以及它们在地方层面实现系统变化的用例潜力。工作流程2：基于地点的行动研究（第2年进行初步案例研究，第3年进行深入案例研究）研究问题：设计未来方法如何支持参与者为基于地点的系统变革开发实践？建议的产出：一系列初步案例研究和一个深入的案例研究，通过参与者网络（Binder等人，2011）的方法来研究系统变革所需的角色，以及促成新实践和维持变革所需的不同类型的紧急关系。设想通过这个过程，一系列基于地点的设计小说（可以采取场景、原型、概念、愿景的形式）将共同开发。

New approaches to problem solving are required to enable fundamental change at every level of society if we are to tackle interconnected "wicked-problems" such as climate change, biodiversity loss and inequality (Worldwatch Institute 2013, Capra and Luisi 2014). The definition of sustainability as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations" (Bruntland, 1987) directly translates into the urgent need for modern urban lifestyles to reduce consumption by ten times (Charter and Tischner, 2001). Achieving the quantitative indicators for sustainable development is a process wrapped up in broader behavioural and cultural change (Lockton, 2015) and will require new methods, tools and narratives (Beddington, 2010). Design can "change existing situations into preferred ones" (Simon, 1999). More recently, design expertise has been advocated as a "social resource for enabling local innovation which designers are enablers of collective cycles of generating and exploring alternative futures" (Jégou and Manzini 2008, Manzini 2015). Urban sociology, a field within social theory, provides a fluid understanding of cities as "place-based" sites of social encounter and division, as fields of politics and power, as symbolic and material landscapes (Tonkiss, 2005). Lefebvre's (1991) treatment of space as a socially constructed product can provide a meaningful way to tackle the complex web of wicked-problems through locally contextualised approaches that focus on the role of actors (both individual and institutional) in the process of creating change. To address these challenging holistic concepts, this proposal draws upon systems change, design thinking, and futures studies and takes a place-based approach enacted through an action-research methodology. The research proposal is situated in the context of my work as senior designer in the System Innovation Lab at Forum for the Future, and builds on previous experience in critical design as architectural designer and urban researcher. The aim of the proposal is to develop a formative assessment of how design futures methodologies can help catalyse place-based systemic change. I am proposing to explore this through two work streams conducted under an action-research methodology. The methodology, which has been described as "the study of a social situation with a view to improving the quality of action within it" (Elliott, 1991), is the most appropriate as it builds on my current work at Forum, and seeks to further develop participatory design futures methods. Work Stream (WS) 1: Interdisciplinary literature review (year 1)Research question: How might the fields of design methods and futures studies provide approaches to systemic change at a local level? Proposed outputs: An assessment of current methods from the fields of design and futures and their use case potential for enabling systemic change at the level of place. Work Stream 2: Place-based action-research (preliminary case studies in year 2 and in-depth case study in year 3)Research question: How might design futures methods support actors in developing practices for place-based systems change?Proposed outputs: A series of preliminary case studies and one in-depth case study, developed through an actor network (Binder et al., 2011) approach which examine the roles needed for systemic change and the different types of emergent relationships needed to broker new practices and sustain the change. It is envisioned that a series of place-based design fictions (which could take the form of scenarios, prototypes, concepts, visions) will be co-developed through this process.