Facilitating regeneration through methodological pluralism
A systemic design journey across mountain communities
Haley Fitzpatrick 2025
Oslo School of Architecture and Design
Institute of Design
Systems Oriented Design Research Group
Abstract
To address the root causes of today’s urgent social-ecological crises, there is a need to transform globally dominant reductionist worldviews to those that support regeneration: holistic, process-oriented and interconnected, in which life thrives at all scales. This process necessitates a shift in awareness and engagement with complexity, viewing emergence, diversity, relationality, and adaptivity as assets to be cultivated rather than controlled or ignored. Pluralism—the ability to engage with diverse ways of knowing and being across cultures, disciplines, contexts, and worldviews—is essential for navigating complexity. Although the importance of action-oriented pluralistic research is widely discussed in transdisciplinary literature, it is less commonly reflected in research methodologies. This article-based thesis explores how systemic design can practically apply methodological pluralism to facilitate transformations towards regeneration.
Foto: Thobias Luthe 2019
Through a reflexive systems-oriented design (SOD) journey across three mountain communities—Ostana, Italy, Hemsedal, Norway, and Mammoth Lakes, California—I prototyped how plural methodological modes, methods and practices can engage across diverse real-world contexts. Drawing from approaches from social sciences, design research and embodied practices, this SOD-based research through design thesis explored plural ways of understanding the intersections between complex social-ecological challenges and co-envisioning regenerative futures with community members. Key insights highlight the importance of multi-modal reflexivity in navigating methodological pluralism, activating stakeholders’ awareness of their agency and interconnectedness, and using visualizations to communicate processes in systemic design research.
This study suggests that expanding the use of methodological pluralism
may benefit from viewing methodologies as complex systems—emergent, adaptive, recursive, and interconnected—allowing for better navigation of differences across scales, contexts, disciplines, and worldviews. In addition to this thesis offering
a combined critical pragmatist and regenerative perspective on methodological pluralism, I offer a visual, analytical heuristic to support systemic design researchers in designing plural methodologies. This thesis implies that cultivating these capacities further can serve as a pathway for navigating the complexities of transformations toward regeneration.