INVERSIONES REALES

This research seeks to add to the small body of existing knowledge by critically assessing how design activity in strategic contexts in the public and civic sectors can be framed and understood. It aims to develop a definition of this work by examining its working processes, key actors and impacts. Current strengths and limitations are also examined.

2.7 Literature Review - Conclusion

Chapter 2 has examined core theories of design activity by considering its definitions, essential elements and new spheres of action in order to develop a theoretical foundation for this research. Different bodies of literature were used to build a perspective of design activity in strategic contexts including foundational design theories, recent literature about emerging design and literature relating to design activity in the public and civic sectors.

The literature frames design activity as an expansive and elusive concept. It evades clear definition and there are dualities in most notions of design, which is at once a verb and a noun, a common lay activity and professional discipline, a technical skill set and an attitude. Design activity is also undergoing tremendous change, adding further opacity to conceptions of its value and of its limitations. Nonetheless, core themes about design activity are echoed in different parts of the literature and provide insight into its essential elements and value in strategic contexts - even if these are not conclusive or fixed.

First, design is a solution-focused and pragmatic activity with fundamental ties to problem-solving. However, problem-solving is not a sufficient definition of design, which is also a creative act where the designer has considerable agency to conceive of the design problem/subject matter and to imagine its potential solutions. In addition, new knowledge is built through the design process, suggesting that design activity is as much engaged with problem-framing as with problem-solving. Despite its ambiguities, the problem-solving paradigm highlights why design activity has appealed to those addressing strategic challenges - including in recent years in the public and civic sectors. Although there has been little scrutiny of the designer’s agency in problem-framing and problem-solving in these fields or detailed analysis of how it is taking place.

Second, the constructive or ‘making’ aspects of design activity is one of its defining features.

The products of design are far more various than is usually assumed, comprising artefacts, services and systems as well as actions and new meanings. Furthermore, these products are not static or neutral, rather they exist in complex ecologies and are the site of dynamic meanings created by designers and non-designers, restricting or enabling desired behaviour.

Making in design activity is also accompanied by loss of materials and ways of living. The expanded view of design products explains how design activity encompasses strategic and systemic outputs such as a new policy. However, the complexity of design products also raises questions about what is being made, what is lost and who is deciding what to make in new strategic contexts. These issues are underexplored in the public and civic sectors.

Third, design is a profoundly human-centred activity requiring hybrid skills. Alongside technical skills, certain qualities or attributes are associated with designers in the literature, such as creativity, imagination and empathy. These elusive traits make the design skillset/mindset hard to define. The role of the designer is also fracturing as more non-designers play active parts in the design process and as professional design activity focuses increasingly on building design capability in others. The methods of design have expanded accordingly and many of the features of current design practice include approaches from other fields. The potential to learn from and engage with different social groups in design activity has been an important incentive for its uptake in the public and civic sectors, and yet, the skills designers require and the ethical considerations of participation have not been adequately probed.

Finally, the development of design in new domains is a resounding theme in contemporary theory. Whilst the strategic potential of design activity has long been recognised in design literature, applied design activity has only recently caught up. In the past two decades, there has been a staggering growth of design activity in governments, and more recently the wider ecosystem of actors responsible for social systems and services in the civic sectors. Public and civic sector design is now deployed in many forms, including service development, digital initiatives, staff training and latterly in strategic contexts. From the literature, policymaking and strategic planning were framed as activities encompassing both the identification of a policy/strategic goal and the subsequent actions to address this goal. The recent strategic applications of design activity now involve the deployment of designers and ways of working from design to develop policy or other strategic goals. This design activity is evolving and shifting so rapidly that both the literature and practice are underdeveloped.

The ideas explored in the Literature Review give rise to a number of theoretical propositions about design activity, which are tested through the primary data collected as part of this research (Fig. 2.3).

Fig. 2.3: Theoretical propositions about design activity from the literature Theoretical proposition Description from the literature

1. Design is a framing’ and ‘problem-solving’ activity

Design is an intentional planning activity where solutions are developed iteratively to improve existing situations i.e. ‘problem-solving’. In parallel, design activity also entails ‘problem-framing’ and new knowledge is built through the design process, leading to associations between design and ‘sense-making’. Furthermore, individual creativity and social interaction are key in the design process.

2. Design is a constructive and material activity with varied outputs

Design is a constructive activity but ‘making’ in design is complex and multi-layered. The outputs of design, include artefacts and services as well as systems and actions. Design activity can result in intangible outputs such as new meanings. Making in design is also accompanied by loss and erosion of materials or old habits.

3. Design is a profoundly human-centred and participatory activity

Design is both an essential human activity and an area of professional expertise. However, the qualities and skills of

professional designers are hard to pin down. Participation is central to design activity and the designer’s role as a facilitator of design expertise in others is increasingly important in contemporary contexts for design. The agency that designers have to ‘enable’ and

‘decide’ raises ethical questions about new design activity.

4. Design is changing, resulting in new roles for designers and new types of design challenge

Notions of emerging design, new types of design challenge and different outputs from design - moving from product to system and environment - imply a shift within design and the types of problems that design is now being deployed to address.

The pragmatic, constructive and human-centred attributes of design activity have much to offer public and civic sector organisations addressing ever-more complex social and policy challenges. However, design activity has grown rapidly in new contexts where its presence and results can have profound social impacts, arguably even more so than the products of industrial design. This development has taken place without due critique, and questions of potential,

maturity and ethics have not been addressed sufficiently. In addition, there is an absence of concrete examples and data about how this work is now taking place.

The literature review underlines several gaps that this research seeks to investigate. Overall, design activity is expanding into new strategic contexts. The strategic potential of design is recognised in foundational theories from the 1960s and 1970s, and in the past 10 years, more recent literature has placed renewed emphasis on this aspect of design. However, data and analysis from real-world examples of the situations, subject matter, key actors and working processes of design activity in new strategic contexts are limited. This observation leads to further gaps in current knowledge:

● The complex and concurrent processes of problem-framing and problem-solving are central to design theory. However, there is a disconnect between the advanced and technical design literature about problem-solving and knowledge about how these processes are taking place in strategic contexts in the public and civic sectors. Factors such as the design process, values attributed to problem-framing and problem-solving and the relationship between them have not been spelt out.

● Design can be viewed as a profoundly material and constructive practice, but as the literature shows, making in design is complex and multi-layered, resulting in varied design outputs. This central facet to design has not been adequately understood in strategic contexts; specifically, the processes of making and products of this design activity have not been made explicit.

● The literature establishes that designers require hybrid skill sets, comprising technical knowledge and more ephemeral traits such as ‘empathy’. Increased emphasis on participation in design activity and new roles for designers as ‘facilitators’ have also been discussed extensively. Nonetheless, the roles, qualities and participatory dimensions of design activity in new strategic contexts have not been thoroughly assessed. This includes the power dynamics and ethical considerations designers are now facing in more politicised situations.

This research addresses these gaps in theoretical understanding, by defining and critically assessing design activity in strategic contexts in the public and civic sectors through primary data.

Chapter 3

Research Design & Methods