Social Relations – Transition Design Seminar CMU

Identifying stakeholder beliefs, assumptions and cultural norms: Although some traditional problems-solving approaches consider user preferences and motivations, they seldom consider the ways in which individual and collective stakeholder beliefs, assumptions and cultural norms have contributed to the problem.

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.

the hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power—which groups have it and which groups do not. It is about resources—which caste is seen as worthy of them and which are not, who gets to acquire and control them, and who does not. It is about respect, authority, and assumptions of competence—who is accorded these and who i... See more

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.

five forms of oppression: 1) Exploitation; 2) Marginalization; 3) Powerlessness; 4) Cultural Dominance; 5) Violence.

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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Uneven power relations among stakeholder groups: The distribution of power (socio-economic-political) among stakeholders affected by a wicked problem is almost always unequal and systemic in nature

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.

The roots of many wicked problems are connected to relations of conflict and power imbalances among stakeholder groups. These complex stakeholder relations are also barriers to societal/organizational transitions