This is an advanced Master course about ‘strategic design’ and will introduce the students to how design methods and tools can be used to address societal challenges. Through this course students will learn about theories and methods from the field of strategic design and get practical experience from applying these in design projects. The course is led by Einar Sneve Martinussen, associate professor at AHO, and guest professor Dan Hill, director of strategic design at Vinnova. Over the last decade, Dan Hill has been an important contributor to the field of strategic design and describes the approach as follows:
70 509 Strategic Design takes the core principles of contemporary design practice – user research and ethnography, agile development, iterative prototyping, participation and co-design, stewardship, working across networks, scales and timeframes – and then it points this toolkit at ethical concerns, addressing systemic change within complex systems, and broader societal outcomes.” Dan Hill (2019)
This course has a focus on strategic design in the broader context of societal development. Students will get to apply and expand their skills and mindsets as designers through practical, exploratory projects that work with a range of societal issues - including sustainability, power and equity, policies for urban- and societal-development, innovation and knowledge, welfare and public services, and citizen participation. Alongside these practice-led projects the course will offer a rich selection of theoretical and inspirational lectures and seminars. A particular focus for this year’s course is exploring social infrastructures for everyday life, meaning the structures that enable social life and participation in society. We will re-examine the potential of traditional social infrastructures, such as libraries, schools, public pools, parks or markets. We will also explore and conceptualise a broader understanding of social infrastructure that could include nature, technologies, digital services, social relations and cultural experiences. Through the projects in the course students will use design methods to develop strategic interventions in the world today, as prototypes and pilot-projects, as well as designing future scenarios. The course brings together research-initiatives at AHO with ongoing projects in the public sector. Collaborators and cases for 2021 are not confirmed yet, but will likely include projects dealing with gender and urban planning, innovation in the public sector, and designing for learning and knowledge-sharing in society.
The ‘Strategic design’ course is a part of D-Box, the National Centre for Transforming Public Services (a collaboration between AHO, BI and DOGA), and is organised together with the research-group Digital Urban Living and guest professor Dan Hill. Key partners and collaborators from these research-groups and networks will be involved in the course, including Einar Sneve Martinussen, Ted Matthews, Jonny Aspen and Kai Reaver. This course builds in part on the series of courses organised by Digital Urban Living over the past years, and will continue our exploration of many of the themes addressed in here, including digital society, sharing culture, inclusion, futures and trust.