Regional planning and policy development

PhD Researcher / Associate Lecturer, University of Dundee, Scotland, UK

1. In your view, how is your research/work related to Service Design?

My research explores a mediatory role for design in regional planning and policy development. It acknowledges that current policy and planning frameworks do not adequately support social transformation. It accepts that action on social, economic and environmental instability will require a deep reassessment of cultural value from the highest level to individual action. In the paper Metadesign, Humberto Maturana describes that in contemporary culture, “the market justifies everything” and “progress is the value that transcends human existence”. In the circumstance of the individual Victor Papanek asserted that, “we must all examine what we can contribute from our own specific role in society.”

In looking to explore a role for design in crafting conditions for mindful transformation my research takes a meta-perspective of design practice. It is grounded in the context of regional development as a mechanism for doing so. Since 2006 I have worked with a wide range of community-based projects and initiatives, both in a design and non-design capacity. My objectives are to develop a high-level contextual understanding of issues affecting the regional service development and the barriers individuals and communities face in realising there own potential. Through doing so I aim to better understand what is required in the re-design of design to meet these objectives.

2. In your view, what is the most/less interesting aspect of Service Design?

I am interested in how service designers navigate complexity and multi-stakeholder collaboration from a people-centred perspective. The designer’s toolkit for understanding, communicating, interpreting and acting in this context is growing rapidly. I am interested in the tools and methods service designer’s use in the facilitation of co-creative process. In particular I am interested in socially engaged service design.

While I acknowledge it as an important part of Service Design Research, in the scope of own research objectives I am less interested in service design process. The boundaries of design practice in relation to transformative objectives continue to expand and permeate new ground, increasingly reaching out to other disciplines and reflecting back. The greater the complexity the less predictable the conditions become and I believe as designers begin to navigate and thus mediate in higher levels of ambiguity it is necessary to embrace a more open and fluid nature of practice.

3. Can you tell us about a Service Design research project(s) you did or read about?

I have co-ordinated a project in Clackmannanshire, Central Scotland since September 2009. It has involved collaboration between Clackmannanshire’s community planning partnership, the University of Dundee, local organisations and residents. As a rural region it has suffered through industrial decline and geographic isolation. Today it has pockets of extreme deprivation and significant health and income inequalities, these are polarising in its development as a commuter belt.

To begin my only objective was to understand the cultural and organisational fabric and respond accordingly. I therefore spent a month living in the area. The root of Clackmannanshire’s problems, are intergenerational unemployment and cyclical deprivation. I began to consider two questions:
• How might design support the development of a core service infrastructure capable of meeting complex needs and supporting people into employment?
• Can new objectives for economic development and models of job creation surface through a contextual understanding of needs and opportunities?
Supervising a group of four Masters of Design / Fine Art students, they visited and I fed back insights during that month. I asked them to explore local smoking rates, significantly above the Scottish national average, but left the brief open. High numbers of pregnant women smoke and the target group became woman aged 20-28. By applying creative research methods and design thinking they realised a lack in provision of affordable, accessible childcare. Causing problems of social isolation and creating barriers to a range of opportunities: health services, skills and training, volunteering and employment options. I recently held a workshop in Clackmannanshire with public, private, third sector organisations and local residents to visually map current childcare provision against areas of deprivation, local schools etc. A collective understanding of gaps opportunities for new service development encourages a collective exploration of new models of service provision such as business incubation, social enterprises and volunteering.

4. Are there area(s) that you would like to do or see research on?

The research in Clackmannanshire has surfaced a number of insights and challenges facing design practice in regional development. It has also highlighted areas through which design thinking and practice could significantly contribute to regional planning and policy development. However, I have a many more questions. I have taken the work in Clackmannanshire to a point, but the project is coming to a close. I believe a degree of legacy will remain through the mutual transference of skills, knowledge and ideas which has taken place. There will be ideas, thoughts and insights that may be taken forward and I hope to keep in touch with those I have worked with over the last fifteen months to explore some of those. In the future I would like to continue research in this on a longer timeframe.

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Your suggestions for the blog:

Who would you like to invite in this conversation about Service Design Research?

Jennie Winhall, Senior Strategist at Participle.

I’d like to hear from people with a deep experiential knowledge of creating and sustaining opportunities for social innovation and ultimately transformation in community and regional development. Such as social entrepreneur, Andrew Mawson of the Bromley-by-Bow project in Tower Hamlets, London.

I’d also like to hear insights from key workers who support clients with complex needs in navigating regional service provision.

What is the question do you have about Service Design?

Design thinking and social design practice is beginning to actively infuse service and systems development at local, regional and ultimately policy levels. Are there multiple roles for design emerging and if so how do they interrelate?

Keywords: interdisciplinary, organisational change, policy development, regional planning, social transformation