Abstract
Transition design first emerged as a provocation to designers to apply design theory and practice to enable societal transitions, including transitions toward sustainability. This raises questions around the roles that transition design can play in sustainability transitions and the specific capabilities that designers can draw on. This paper seeks to answer these questions via a transition design case study project in agricultural sustainability. Specifically, the project focuses on the growing interest in regenerative agriculture in New South Wales, Australia from 2017 through 2023. Within the case study, the researcher as designer-practitioner works as a change agent, taking part in collaborative initiatives. Through semi-structured interviews, ethnographic immersion and involvement in multiple working groups, the researcher-designer-practitioner tests design-based practices, identifies acupuncture points across the agriculture sector, and co-develops initiatives to address these. This research into practice yields a set of capabilities and methods, as well as key roles for design in transitions.
Keywords
transition design; regenerative agriculture; systems change for sustainability transitions; practice-based design research
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.477
Citation
Alina Miller, M., and Baumber, A. (2024) Enabling Regenerative Transitions: What Can Design Offer?, in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.477
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Research Paper
Included in
Enabling Regenerative Transitions: What Can Design Offer?
Transition design first emerged as a provocation to designers to apply design theory and practice to enable societal transitions, including transitions toward sustainability. This raises questions around the roles that transition design can play in sustainability transitions and the specific capabilities that designers can draw on. This paper seeks to answer these questions via a transition design case study project in agricultural sustainability. Specifically, the project focuses on the growing interest in regenerative agriculture in New South Wales, Australia from 2017 through 2023. Within the case study, the researcher as designer-practitioner works as a change agent, taking part in collaborative initiatives. Through semi-structured interviews, ethnographic immersion and involvement in multiple working groups, the researcher-designer-practitioner tests design-based practices, identifies acupuncture points across the agriculture sector, and co-develops initiatives to address these. This research into practice yields a set of capabilities and methods, as well as key roles for design in transitions.