Large-scale information maps relevant to complex problem areas selected by Systemic Design students in OCAD University's SFI MDes program
To support the design process in bringing about positive change-making, leading to flourishing, how might we lead systemic design to more self-awareness, accountability, and maturity? In this peer-reviewed paper, the authors call for systemic designers to acquire and integrate more psychology, sociology, and ethics.
Presented in RSD7: Relating Systems Thinking and Design Symposium 2018, Turin, Italy
Systemic design promises to address grand challenges such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Toward these ends, the authors argue that the systemic design mindset needs better awareness and norms for accountability. We recommend greater use of knowledge drawn from psychology to boost insight about motivations and cognitive biases. We call on systemic designers to integrate principles of ethical practice, as new technological affordances, which amplify risk, increasingly impact social and economic life. To highlight wanted and unwanted emergent effects in complex techno-social systems, we introduce a schema with three layers of activity: regulating, building, and using. To illustrate the risks and benefits of designing in a data-intensive world, we unpack exemplary cases from history and contemporary society. We highlight emerging initiatives where systemic design thinkers introduce ethical accountability to a system by cross-pollinating and collaborating between the three layers of activity in these complex systems.
Strategic Innovation Lab (sLab)
OCAD University
100 McCaul Street
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M5T 1W1
sLab is a centre for design research, innovation and strategic foresight at OCAD. Except where otherwise noted, content on slab.ocadu.ca is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Canada License.
