A change of perspective and a whole new set of metaphors (Czarniawska, 2008)
“…each excursion into another field of knowledge brings with it things that were embedded in a different type of soil, and it is inevitable that particles of that soil are still clinging to the roots, practically invisible to the new owner. Additionally, a re-embedding into the new soil could produce deviations and hybrids that are […]
Have I found my new focal length?
When I picked up the metaphorical pen again last month, here on this blog, after almost a decade of silence, I discovered in the course of my writing that I must find a way to change the focal length of my mind’s eye. As I wrote on March 20th, only my second post in the […]
Or, why I need three different pairs of spectacles and simply trifocals won’t do
As my writing out of my thinking progresses, I am coming up against the natural barrier of things I do not want to unpack on the blog. On one hand, this is a good thing because it informs me my blog is serving the function it used to serve back in the day. On the […]
Resurrecting the Perspective blog
A long time ago, sometime in the first couple of months of 2005, I was on the phone with Stu Constantine, the founder of Core77, wondering out loud about future prospects as I contemplated resigning from my position as Director, Graduate Admissions at the Institute of Design, IIT, Chicago. He advised me to start a […]
Emerging Futures Lab celebrates 10 years this week!
This is a special week – emerging futures lab celebrates its 10th year! Follow the tag EFL10 for a retrospective of work over the past decade.
Key Competitive Advantage for Frontier and Emerging Markets
There’s a nuance, I’ve discovered, in the application of user centered design methods for entering the frontier and emerging markets of the developing world where a significant proportion of economic activity is confusingly labeled “informal”, rather than unformal as the case tends to be. In more advanced consumer market contexts, where there are umpteen data […]
Old and New: Changing Perspectives on the Informal Economy
Martha Alter Chen’s table summarizing the still prevalent yet now considered obsolete view of the informal economy, against the revised perspective currently held is worth showcasing in its own right. Further food for thought comes from this little snippet from Sparks and Barnett: Gelb et al (2009) found that the “…productivity of informal firms is […]
“No Ordinary Disruption” – Africa’s Transformation
McKinsey consultants have released a new book – No Ordinary Disruption – looking at global mega trends and market forces that are forcing a rethink of the foundations of their intuitive knowledge. Assumptions are to be challenged and questioned, they say, as these changes impact a deeper transition in the way the world works. Even […]
Pasteur’s Quadrant and Ethics: Research framing among lower income and rural people
When I forget myself, I come back to this photograph to remind me of whom I really work for and why. His name was never asked because he was much older, and thus respected. One could only call him aap (thou). He was my first interviewee for The Prepaid Economy project, more than 6 years […]
Design’s future is a global perspective and an inclusive mindset
Matthew Milan’s thoughtful piece reflecting on the turmoil engulfing the design industry is definitely worth reading. There’s been a lot published on the topic ever since Adaptive Path was bought out by Capital One, a bank. Most of it has been either hand wringing over the death knell of the independent design industry, or rebuttals […]
