Abstract
This paper explores the positioning of design in transdisciplinary collaborations. Design is increasingly positioned as a promising way of working in complex, multi-stakeholder collaborations. In this paper, we want to deepen and challenge this positioning in order to better clarify the contribution of design. Building on literature and experiences from an ongoing consortium-type research project in the context of smart cities, we concep-tualize five preliminary roles that design adopts in collaborative settings: (1) generator; (2) communicator; (3) facilitator; (4) mediator and (5) provocateur. We argue that the latter two roles, namely the mediator and provocateur, are the most recent and the most suiting roles in transdisciplinary settings. To fully encompass these new roles, however, design must keep evolving itself and ground its practices with more sensitivity to the ethics and politics of technology. Deeping and expanding these roles will even-tually strengthen the position of design when addressing socio-technical challenges.
Keywords
transdisciplinary collaboration, design evolution, societal challenges, socio-technical controversies
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2022.726
Citation
Geenen, A., Özkaramanli, D., Matos-Castaño, J., and van der Voort, M. (2022) Positioning design in transdisciplinary collaborations: Experiences from a smart city consortium project, in Lockton, D., Lenzi, S., Hekkert, P., Oak, A., Sádaba, J., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2022: Bilbao, 25 June - 3 July, Bilbao, Spain. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2022.726
Creative Commons License
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Conference Track
Research Paper
Included in
Positioning design in transdisciplinary collaborations: Experiences from a smart city consortium project
This paper explores the positioning of design in transdisciplinary collaborations. Design is increasingly positioned as a promising way of working in complex, multi-stakeholder collaborations. In this paper, we want to deepen and challenge this positioning in order to better clarify the contribution of design. Building on literature and experiences from an ongoing consortium-type research project in the context of smart cities, we concep-tualize five preliminary roles that design adopts in collaborative settings: (1) generator; (2) communicator; (3) facilitator; (4) mediator and (5) provocateur. We argue that the latter two roles, namely the mediator and provocateur, are the most recent and the most suiting roles in transdisciplinary settings. To fully encompass these new roles, however, design must keep evolving itself and ground its practices with more sensitivity to the ethics and politics of technology. Deeping and expanding these roles will even-tually strengthen the position of design when addressing socio-technical challenges.