A framework for teaching Design for Social Impact

The sociological perspective [Habermas] would want to view the lifeworld from a viewpoint of an objective reality of the society. It takes into account the social and material environmental conditions and their relevance. The view of the lifeworld is more or less the “background” environment of competences, practices, and attitudes representable in terms of one’s cognitive horizon. The focus here thus is not on the consciousness of the individual, but to understand the practical rationality that is being governed by the rules of that system. Habermas, whose social theory is grounded in communication, focuses on the lifeworld as consisting of socially and culturally sedimented linguistic meanings [1]. It is thus the lived realm of informal, culturally-grounded understandings and mutual accommodations. Social coordination and systemic regulation occur by means of shared practices, beliefs, values, superstitions, alternate and parallel governing bodies and structures. The Social Designer thus has to pay attention to the society, the rules of it, and to the drivers of communication here. This contradicts the subjective reality as proposed by the phenomenological.

The epistemological is a third perspective that touches upon the notion of ‘life conditions’ as a further reference point to understanding the social space. The life conditions include the material and immaterial living circumstances as for example employment situation, availability of material resources, housing conditions, social environment (friends, foes, relatives, etc.) as well as the persons physical condition (fat/thin, tall/small, female/male, healthy/sick, etc.). It is entrusted on top of the lifeworld and the social and material environment conditions. These conditions aim to look at the particular circumstances in the life. The Social Designer thus has to understand the present conditions and as a result design for the present; and not based on a before thought about impression of the social space.

The above mentioned three perspectives provides the designers with insights into the subjects, the various stakeholders, the social and cultural environment, the governance and in the end is able to verify any preconceived notion about the social space in which they want to design.

The challenges awaiting the designer

The above-mentioned things are easier said than done and very challenging for designers. It is a challenge to come out of the elitist image, which design as a field itself poses and engage with something totally different. Doing any form of design research through ethnography research, contextual inquiries, observations etc, within the lifeworld is challenging. The barriers of language, and often a culture shock, experienced during the research, further enhance this challenge.  However the Social Designer can be better prepared to do Primary research, which is an essential part of the Social Design practice. As a result of this the designer will be better informed and adept at Designing for Social Impact.

WICKED PROBLEMS

Wicked problems [Rittel & Webber, 1973] [19] are at the heart of the Social Design space [2]. It is a class of social system problems, which are ill-formulated, where the information is confusing, where there are many clients and decision makers with conflicting values, and where the ramifications of the whole system are thoroughly confusing [6]. Messy, circular, and aggressive, these wicked problems are extraordinarily difficult to categorize or define. In his original formulation, Horst Rittel listed ten characteristics of wicked problems, including the most troublesome first characteristic: defining wicked problems is in itself a wicked problem [5] .The inability to get to this core and the impossible nature of being able to differentiate makes things difficult. Multiple starting points and often no clear end mark the characteristics of wicked problems as the solution are intermingled with another problem within the same social space and share a causal relation to each other [Figure 1].

The problem and solution do not share a one-on-one linear relation. The solution often has remnants of the other problems within the social space. Such is the related nature of wicked problems.

Project findings from primary research

In the context of the child education project in Bihar, we traveled to Bihar, and in particular to the schools and villages where we are working towards improving the quality of education. Our aim was to speak to the different stakeholders, and get a deeper understanding of the lifeworld in its reality and get insights into the right problems.

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