Category Archives: Perspective

Applying the Systems Test to the Regional Informal Economic System

By Niti Bhan | Published: December 13, 2021

If the informal economic system, as seen in east Africa, is a system, and there are social practices at both the rural end of the interconnections and flows that comprise the functioning of the system, then taking a systems approach to food security would facilitate not only the increase in stocks i.e. the yield of […]

Also posted in Africa, African Consumer Market, Biashara Economics, East African Community, Ecosystem, Indigenous & Traditional, Informal & Flexible, Mama Biashara, Marketing, Retail in Africa, Sub Saharan Africa, Systems | Leave a comment

Regular programming to resume

By Niti Bhan | Published: December 9, 2021

The semester ends next week. I want to go back to regular blogging which I’d begun in earnest back in March 2021. I am very pleased with my courses. We made that vacuum cleaner nozzle as part of an intensive doctoral level programme on 3D printing and circular economy concepts. Our partner for the project […]

Posted in Perspective | Tagged kaleva's songs | Leave a comment

Coursework update

By Niti Bhan | Published: November 13, 2021

Since late September, classes began for this semester in full earnest. After a year of disruption on my part, I finally got the chance to take a full load of courses which have kept me engaged, taught me something new, and exercised skills I haven’t used since studying for my O Levels in 1982. I’ve […]

Also posted in Reflections | Tagged education | Leave a comment

Revisiting Design Thinking: Pondering the process and principles

By Niti Bhan | Published: October 11, 2021

I have not written on design thinking in more than a decade. The era when I’d be cited in Fast Company or Rita Sue Siegel’s handbook on Industrial Design careers is long gone. Which one of these definitions should I use going forward? “Design thinking in business takes this problem solving aspect one step further […]

Also posted in Design, Design Methodology, Work in Progress | Tagged design thinking, transdisciplinarity and design | Leave a comment

Framing Transdisciplinarity from the Perspective of Human Centered Design

By Niti Bhan | Published: October 9, 2021

In a previous post, I had introduced the concept of transdisciplinarity as a means to conceptualize the space I inhabit with my research and work through the use of Czarniawska’s joy at the discovery of anthropology and its methods for understanding humans in the context of organizational studies (Czarniawska, 2008). Today, I would like to […]

Posted in Perspective | Tagged remoteresilienceproject, transdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity and design | Leave a comment

This is my song

By Niti Bhan | Published: October 8, 2021

It is too early to say whether the journey I began in March to look for my word song and the magic I’d thought I’d found when I read the Kalevala has categorically been a success. I am not yet settled into the word song I’ve been hearing in my mind’s eye. I had already […]

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Disrupting oneself

By Niti Bhan | Published: September 30, 2021

Disrupting oneself deliberately can often be the hardest thing to do. One takes a cold, hard look at where one is at and says, this needs to change. It takes courage. And, a willingness to let go of comfortable routines and established achievements. When you are at the top of your game, it can be […]

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On Reflection

By Niti Bhan | Published: September 12, 2021

The new semester’s classes start tomorrow. My first reading assignment has already landed metaphorically on my desk. The two articles to be read are on reflection, reflective writing, and what does this mean in practice. I was intimidated by them – did I know how to reflect in writing? would I be able to grasp […]

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Infrastructures of inclusion and informality: who drives the design of sociotechnical systems?

By Niti Bhan | Published: August 25, 2021

A recent Debate (Development and Change, Vol 52, No. 4) on the infrastructures of inclusion, informality and the social contract expands the notion of infrastructure beyond the tangible and the technological, to the systemic and economic, as well as societal structures and processes that are intended to facilitate inclusion. As Kate Meagher says in her […]

Also posted in Design, Innovation Planning, Literature review, Mobile platform, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Sub Saharan Africa, Systems, Technology, Value | Tagged design, informal economy, infrastructures of inclusion, sociotechnical systems | 1 Response