Social Relations – Transition Design Seminar CMU

Fairness/Cheating; Care/Harm; Authority/Subversion; Loyalty/Betrayal; Sanctity/Degradation; Liberty/Oppression. We become polarized from each other when our moral foundations are too different from one another.

in framing problems (the most powerful stakeholder groups usually frame the problem);

Transition Design attempts to reveal and map power relations among stakeholder groups in order to: 1) understand which groups have what types of power in the system (sometimes a group has the power/reason to keep the problem unresolved); 2) identify which groups have little power/are disenfranchised (the work is to help build their capacity and giv... See more

Therefore understanding power dynamics and mapping the ways in which they manifest in a system (wicked problem) and among stakeholder groups is crucial to problem resolution.

An imbalance in power relations among stakeholders affected by wicked problems is a barrier to problem resolution. Power dynamics permeate societal systems; its structures, cultural norms, material artifacts and technologies etc;

systemic oppression manifests on four systems levels: The Individual, The Interpersonal, The Institutional and The Structural

Relations of affinity can be immediately leveraged in the co-creation of visions, projects, initiatives and other types of interventions. These early, tangible steps can yield positive, mutually beneficial outcomes which help establish trust and bridge the divides in areas in which they disagree.

Transition Design attempts to reveal and map power relations among stakeholder groups in order to: 1) understand which groups have what types of power in the system (sometimes a group has the power/reason to keep the problem unresolved); 2) identify which groups have little power/are disenfranchised (the work is to help build their capacity and giv... See more

Oppression and injustice are human creations and phenomena, built into our current economic system, and therefore can be undone.

Oppression (e.g. racism, colonialism, class oppression, patriarchy, and homophobia) is more than just the sum of individual prejudices. Its patterns are systemic and therefore self-sustaining without dramatic interruptio

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