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Workshop by Professor Peter Jones

Oct 2011 | News & Notes

5th October 2011: Social systems design for complex services

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Professor Peter Jones from OCAD Toronto will lead a three days workshop this week.

Dr. Jones is associate professor at Toronto’s OCAD University, where he is a senior fellow of the Strategic Innovation Lab and teaches in the Strategic Foresight and Innovation graduate program. He is managing partner of Dialogic Design International, an organizational and strategic design consultancy he founded in 2007. Peter is a board member of the Institute for 21st Century Agoras, the organization founded by Dr. Aleco Christakis, which promotes the practice and science of dialogic design for democratic, collaborative action for socially complex problem systems. He started and facilitates the Toronto-based educational and consultative community of practice known as Design with Dialogue.

What are the deep drivers of your problem system?  

Social systems design for complex services

The following outline is proposed for the upcoming workshop.               PDF Copy

A workshop on dialogic design for complex systems and its methodologies. Workshop to co-create a research-based understanding of social design methods for systemic design. There are underlying systemic forces that all social, business and policy innovation will deal with in a given horizon. We can develop sound understanding of these forces in scenarios and as interdependent problem systems through dialogic design practices. The systemic design methods provide an effective method and resource for navigating complexity and contribute to developing a graduate level pedagogy of social systems design.

The methodological value of social systems design process is in identifying common drivers and influences underlying an interconnected problematique in complex systems (ecological and climate changes, economic change and credit, consumer demographics, re-localization vs globalization, political trends, energy policy and costs). The social value of the process is in enabling designers, researchers, and our organizations effectively address urgent socially-relevant challenges by gaining experience and understanding of effective methods from the systems field.

Purpose: To expand the capability of AHO graduate students to formulate service system design proposals for systemic innovation.

Need:  Social and educational need to improve design methods for social and systemic innovation. Urgent need to address complex social issues effectively and democratically.

Learning Modes:

  • Participatory workshop, Group discussion, Lecture and discussion
  • Readings provided in advance of workshop.
  • Online documentation: Brief concept summaries online, video and photo records of sessions
  • Presentation files provided online after discussions.