PhD Project of Designerly approaches to SOI by Svein Kjøde, PhD candidate.
Focus is directed at the theories and frameworks defining methodological practice in the early, strategic phases of SOI projects.
The research agenda for SOI and Design
Current sustainability challenges forces companies to radically rethink their operations to account for the long-term ecological and social impact of their business models. It is argued that such transitions of industries and businesses towards more sustainable value creation are dependent on a number of factors, an important one being the capacity and ability for innovation at the systems level and on business models (Schaltegger et al., 2012).
As a response, we observe a surge in academic writing on the role of business in addressing sustainability, but it remains unclear how, and to what extent they are adopted and operationalised by the private sector.
A critical, practice-theory gap
It is apparent that the required transitions of our societies are faced with challenges deeply entrenched in current socio-technical regimes. It is therefore suggested that design practitioners need to further develop their tools and competencies to support radical rethinking of businesses' way of operating, accounting for the long-term ecological and social impact of their business models.
The efficacy of tools and methods associated with SOI is increasingly discussed from a designerly perspective. Gaziulusoy’s (2015) critical review concludes that the tools and approaches mostly used are not taking into account the complexity of systems innovations and calls for more effective tools and methods to succeed with sustainable innovation.
Scientific foundation
Sustainability as systems challenges
The complex, interdependent network of casualties and multi-level, multi-stakeholder context implies that sustainability challenges are systemic in their nature (Barbier, 1987; Clayton & Radcliffe, 2018; Holling, 2001), and should be addressed as such. The systems theories in question have emerged from a broad spectrum of disciplines such as biology, engineering, design, and psychology (Hieronymi, 2013) and include perspectives on the organising of collaborative, interdisciplinary work for new ways to adequately address systems challenges.
The changing role of designers
The emergence and maturing of the design-related professions have been a key factor in realizing innovation (Fjællegaard et al., 2019; Hernandez et al., 2017; Kolko, 2007; Stamm, 2004) and value-creation (Design ROI, 2012; McKinsey, 2018) over the last century.However, It is now evident that innovation and design also exhibit negative and unintended consequences (Biggi & Giuliani, 2020; Coad et al., 2021; Meijer & Thaens, 2020; Westley et al., 2011), and arguably more so as design practices move into increasingly complex, critical arenas of business and society.
