by Ingelin Mari Åmo
We have finally launched the research group Systemic Design and Sustainability, which is organised through the Department of Product Design at OsloMet. Among the participants in the research group, we have PhD students, master’s students, and researchers from a total of 7 different universities in Europe and seven academic disciplines. With this, we have brought together a group of people who want to exercise critical thinking through an open and inclusive discussion. On the opening day, February 9th, we tried conversation theory as a starting point for an exploratory conversation. This inspired us further to test out the discussion format in future meetings.
We look forward to the Systemic Design and Sustainability research group becoming an exploratory, challenging, developing and friendly discussion forum. Furthermore, we hope that together we can develop the field of Systemic Design and Sustainability and the various academic fields represented by the participants, through joint research project collaboration, in the guidance of PD students, and collaborative work to obtain funding support for our projects.
The research projects formally associated with the research group so far are REDUCE, a project supported by the Research Council, and SirkAQ, circular economy in aquaculture, which is a Green Platform project (see: https://sirkaq.no/), both with PhD students working on systemic design. SirkAQ is about eco-design from a systemic perspective and circular economy in Norwegian aquaculture, however, with international outreach. In addition, a third PhD-position will be announced in the end of March about systemic design and the studies of young people’s experiences of feeling alienated or excluded from schools or work life in Norway, in light of how one can design future public services. The academic perspective for this PhD is social sustainability, public services, game dynamics, and engagement as part of service development and learning experience.
We want to attract designers and non-designers who are interested in joining continuous discussions and research into systemic design and sustainability. Please share or apply for the announced PhD-position in aquaculture, PhD-position – SirkAQ. Also, English-speaking applicants wanted! Read more about the research group: