Download Designing for relational goods: evidences from DESIS Network

Designing for relational goods:
evidences from DESIS Network practices
08 06 2016
Carla Cipolla, Coppe – Federal University of Rio de Janeiro [email protected]
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 613169.
DESIS Network
DESIS Network is an acronym for “Design for Social Innovation and
Sustainability”.
The association describes itself as a network of design schools or designoriented schools in universities (called DESIS Labs), which aims “to use
design to trigger, enable and scale-up social innovation through design
thinking and design knowledge.” (DESIS Network, n.d.)
Premisses
(1) that DESIS Network Labs are placing its focus in promoting social
change by redesigning the way people relate with each other, at
interpersonal level, and this is one of its main theories of change;
Premisses
(2) that sociologists and economists are developing the concept of
“relational goods” i.e., “type of goods that are neither material things, nor
ideas, nor functional performances but consist, instead, of social
relations” (Donati, 2014, p.20-21);
Premisses
(3) being DESIS Network focused on design activities, the study of its
practices can increase the knowledge about how relational goods are
produced through design practices;
Premisses
(4) this study collaborates to the efforts to understand how social
innovations promote social change, here specifically, through the
production of relational goods.
It is possible to consider DESIS Network as a social innovation itself,
including its labs, but the focus here is placed in the projects developed
by its Labs in their localities, which are considered the main unit of
analysis.
Study
The main aim of this study is to describe and analyse how relational
goods are being (directly or indirectly) produced through the projects
developed by DESIS Network Labs.
Methodology
Exploratory research and included an embedded qualitative in-depth
case study conducted over two DESIS Labs in Italy and in Brazil between
2014-2016.
o Semi-structured interviews
o Participatory observation
o Document review
Desis Network:
transformative ambition and interpersonal relations
The transformative ambition of the DESIS Network is not stated in the
form of a clear “manifesto”.
DESIS is a large network (48 DESIS Labs in 2014)
The specific transformative goals of each initiative is framed by each
DESIS Lab in line with the characteristics and opportunities of their own
localities, mostly focused on promote change at the city level.
However, it is possible to identify how interpersonal relations are
being one of the main focus in the actions proposed by DESIS
network members.
Service encounter
service firm's delivery process
A key issue was always how to manage interpersonal encounters
Contact
personnel
Customer
Efficiency x satisfaction (customer) and Efficiency x autonomy (contact personnel)
Service encounter
New service models
Specific interaction patterns in terms of
relations and collaborations
Production-line approach to service
"If machinery is to be
viewed as a piece of
equipment with the
capability of
producing a
predictably
standardized,
customer-satisfying
output while
minimizing the
operating
discretion of its
attendant, that is
what a McDonald’s
retail outlet is”
(LEVITT, 1972)
Hosting a student at home
.
matching complementary
demands
Hosting a student at home
1
Overcome initial
barriers
acceptance
2
3
Be introduced to
each other
Continuous
support
attribution
confirmation
RELATIONAL SERVICE JOURNEY
All the processes to support
the interpersonal encounter
Cipolla, 2007, 2012
Desis Network:
transformative ambition and interpersonal relations
Despite the inexistence of a clearly stated and common
transformative ambition among DESIS network members,
the consideration of the interpersonal encounters,
in its collaborative or relational character can be identified
as a common ground in the transformative processes of DESIS Network:
transformation is to be promoted by rethinking the way,
individuals and groups enter in relation and collaboration
to produce commonly recognized results.
Projects: interpersonal relations
MIGRATION to foster new relations between migrants and local communities to
avoid exclusion
HOUSING SOLUTIONS based on new collaborations between residents
URBAN PLANNING, to promote a new identity of the neighbourhood and to
strengthen the social fabric
AGING, to promote new relations between older people themselves and other
actors to improve the quality of later life
NEW FOOD CHAINS, to foster direct relations between consumers and producers
… and the development of new relationships between people themselves and the
state (Manzini and Stazkowski, 2015).
Design and social innovation:
from designing material goods
to relational goods
Relational good
Relational goods are considered in this study as intangible goods that come into
existence under particular conditions, when “the participating individuals
themselves produce and enjoy it together” (Donati, 2014, p.21).
Simple examples are the trust between people or families that help one
another; the feeling of safety among the residents of a neighbourhood or a
social or health service able to improve the quality of relations between parents
and offspring (Donati, 2014).
Relational sociology as stated by Donati (2014, 2015)
Relational goods and transformation
• goods produced by relational subjects: “relational subjects, and the goods
they generate, can contribute to making civil society more robust: that is, no
longer the typically capitalist society of the market, but an «associational»
society able to sustain a mature democracy”. (Donati, 2014, p.19, Donati,
2015).
• For Donati (1989) relational goods are positioned beyond the individual good
or the public good (in the modern technical sense), but produced precisely
as a common good of the subjects in relation: “such a good must be
defined not as a function of individual experiences taken singularly
(privately) or collectively, but as a function of their relations” (Donati, 1989,
pp. 161-182).
Relational goods and synergy with DESIS Network
Non-designable character of human relations
and the answers proposed by DESIS Network members
Non-anonimity
(Donati (2014) the relational good requires “a personal and social identity of the
participants; no relational good exists between anonymous subjects because the
relational good implies that the actions that the subjects bring into existence refer to
each one’s identity as a personal and social being” (p. 30).
Relational and collaborative criteria for evaluating human relations
as primary and secondary relational goods)
Time and effort
relational goods “requires elaboration over time (the relation’s temporal history) and
a simple interaction in the moment is not sufficient”
Relational goods and synergy with DESIS Network
Non-designable character of human relations
and the answers proposed by DESIS Network members
Non-anonimity
(Donati (2014) states that in order to come into existence, the relational good
requires “a personal and social identity of the participants; no relational good
exists between anonymous subjects because the relational good implies that
the actions that the subjects bring into existence refer to each one’s identity as
a personal and social being” (p. 30).
Relational and collaborative criteria for evaluating human relations
as primary and secondary relational goods)
Production models
for relational goods
Relational goods production models
MODEL 1
New communities-in-place:
the Coltivando project, Italy
MODEL 2
Multiple and open-ended design process:
the Creative Citizens project, Italy
MODEL 3
Virtuous and continuous circle:
the Alto Vale Project, Brazil
Model 1: New communities-in-place
• DESIS Lab is oriented to produce specific places where different
local communities are invited to interweave, which may include
(preferably) the same designers involved.
• New relational goods are produced through the cooperation
between local communities which are not used to interact, recreating the relation between people and the spaces where they
live, with the attribution of new meanings in the shared areas on
which they are invited to interact.
Model 2: Multiple and open-ended processes
• local communities are seen as an open- space of multiple
possibilities. The DESIS Lab practices act as a catalyser by
motivating the convergence of existing interests and resources
towards common goals to produce new activities on which new
relational goods are produced.
• In terms of qualities and properties, the relational goods produced
in this model are inseparable from the people involved, including
the designers, and the ties becomes stronger as the relation
between those involved evolves over time.
Model 3: Virtuous and continuous circle
In this model, the DESIS Lab acts to improve the interaction
between people to generate new commons. New commons are
understood are various types of shared resources that have recently
evolved or have been recognized as commons.
Subjects are oriented toward promoting the good of the relations
existing among them and thus, also, toward caring for the objects
that represent these goods (that is,common goods) (Donati, 2014)
It is developed beyond specific punctual actions to a broader action
(for ex. in a specific territory)
Final considerations
Relational evils: “particularistic and closed goods, such as those sought
by groups connected to lobbyists or the mafia”(p. 21)
Requirement of relational goods:
“the good that they entail is an emergent effect which redounds to the
benefit of participants as well as of those who share in its repercussions
from the outside, without any single subject’s having the ability to
appropriate it for him/herself” (p.21)
It is possible to observe that the collaborative and relational character of
the solutions and ideas developed by network members are convergent
with this requirement. Even if developed by a small group, has an
emergent effect. Also the focus on replication (to other context and
communities)