PhD course: 'Transition Design' in Practice

Course Description

The field of design research is currently developing a variety of design methodologies, all aimed at addressing the question of how to adapt design practices to facilitate sustainable transitions within our societies.

Among these methodologies, ‘Transition Design’ stands out as one of the most prominent and promising. However, a common criticism of these emerging design methodologies, including ‘Transition Design,’ is that they can be challenging to instantiate into actual design practice.

This PhD course confronts the challenge of ‘designing transitions’ by delving into the theoretical and analytical foundations of ‘Transition Design.’ Instead of treating them as overarching explanatory frameworks, we work with these foundations as practical and tangible tools for reshaping specific modes of thinking and designing.

Programme

• Day 1
  Theoretical foundations of ‘Transition Design’
• Day 2
  Analytical experiments with theories as tools for thinking and designing
• Day 3
  Implications for your practices of researching and designing

Course details

• Course dates:17, 18 and 19 June 2024
• Preparation: Write a 5-page empirical description of a central issue in your project.
• Course responsible and lecturer: Morten Krogh Petersen, Associate Professor PhD, Lab for Sustainability and Design, Design School Kolding
• Location: Design School Kolding
• ECTS points: 4 ECTS
• Registration deadline: 30 April 2024 to Christina Stind Rosendahl at csr@dskd.dk

Selected readings

• Escobar, A. (2018). Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds. Duke University Press.
• Irwin, T. (2015). Transition Design: A Proposal for a New Area of Design Practice, Study, and Research. Design and Culture, 7(2), 229-246. DOI: 10.1080/17547075.2015.1051829.
• Kossoff, G., Tonkinwise, C., & Irwin, T. (2015). Transition Design: The importance of everyday life and lifestyles as a leverage point for sustainability transitions. In 6th International Sustainability Transitions Conference.
• Latour, B. (2000). When things strike back: a possible contribution of ‘science studies’ to the social sciences. The British Journal of Sociology, 51(1), 107-123.
• Mol, A. (2021). Eating in Theory. Duke University Press.
• Nold, C. (2018). Practice-based ontological design for multiplying realities. Strategic Design Research Journal.
• Shove, E. (2010). Beyond the ABC: climate change policy and theories of social change. Environment and planning A, 42(6), 1273-1285.
• Tonkinwise, C. (2023). Some Theories of Change behind and within transition designing. In Strategic Thinking, Design and the Theory of Change: A Framework for Designing Impactful and Transformational Social Interventions, 270.
• Willis, A. M. (2006). Ontological designing. Design Philosophy Papers, 4(2), 69-92.