Social Relations – Transition Design Seminar CMU

Transition design focuses on everyday life in place as the primary context for intervening in wicked problems. Everyday life can be understood as an emergent property of people going about the activity of satisfying their needs. Understanding how people define their needs, and go about satisfying them (or failing to do so) is a key strategy for dev... See more

in mapping the historical evolution of a wicked problem, we must identify the events, beliefs, attitudes, innovations and norms within the landscape, regime and niche levels, but we must also learn to understand the complex systems dynamics at work within the whole.

The concept of wholeness is integral to a systems thinking approach. A system is more than the sum of its parts—it's defined by the interaction of its parts. To understand how a system works, you have to study not the individual elements but the linkages between them. When you start thinking in systems, you can then spot opportunities for change. B... See more

We define a shift as social, political, economic and/or cultural transformation. From our perspective, we want shifts in the direction of ecological resilience and social equity, as an imperative. We believe that shifts can emerge from collective “aha” moments when social movements awaken the popular imagination to new possibilities and spark socia

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Relationships of conflict or alignment can occur in a number of areas such as use of natural resources, economic issues, political/governance issues, technology and infrastructure but can also center around beliefs, values and cultural norms. Since all of these contribute to the problem in question, they can also become leverage points for positive... See more

A wicked problem is one where there are a plethora of ways to work towards the vision with multiple parties, people, systems, processes, and interactions that may impact or be impacted by the solution.

Designing interventions within a large, Transition Design project will require transdisciplinary teams working over long periods of time in a co-design process with stakeholders themselves. How can continuity be maintained over long periods of time when actors are continually changing?