Democratizing diagnostics by design
I began developing my approach for diagnostic study of unstructured problem spaces in complex adaptive human systems in earnest more than a decade ago. The roots of my interest in this work, however, go back more than 35 years to my final year of engineering back in Bangalore (Bengaluru). It strikes me, on reflection, […]
Transformative Research and its Discontents: A design practitioner reflects
[ Personal and societal transformation] are intertwined and that personal transformation is a necessary component of research that is designed to support change at the societal level […] if we design our research so that it explicitly addresses issues of discrimination and oppression that the probability of personal and social transformation increases. (Mertens, 2017) This […]
Informal Community Boundary Spanners Build Knowledge Bridges to the World at Large
Now that I know what I am looking for, after the two rounds of data analysis focusing on the links between the training experience and the real world unassisted experience of the facilitators, and the kinds of beneficial outcomes experienced by the participants, some effects of which were explicated by participants reflecting more than a […]
Designed to matter: Social design of the participatory approach to enhance innovation capacity
Chew et al. 2015 introduce their blending of the psychological concept of ‘mattering’ with the theoretical aspects of agency and empowerment, in their paper looking at ICT4D and women micro-entrepreneurs in India. Mattering is an empirically verified and validated concept from the field of social psychology 1. It is defined as the perception that people […]
Framing Transdisciplinarity from the Perspective of Human Centered Design
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 […]
Understanding Delegation
Less than 10 days ago, I was faced with an unusual problem, one of those which they say are good problems to have. I found I’d reached the point in my process of development where I had to choose between the perspective held over from a past life along with the skills honed therein, where […]
One year anniversary of experimenting with design and innovation tools for vegetable vendors in Nairobi’s slums
Felix Omondi, our lead innovation facilitator, reminds me today that its the one year anniversary of the first participatory design workshop held with mama mbogas in Mathare, one of Nairobi’s informal settlements. Categorized by us as the “tomato group” of B2C (business to consumer) vegetable vendors (mama mboga in colloquial swahili), these 8 ladies were […]
Personal reflections on the remote resilience project (April 2020 – August 2020)
As I prepare to speak on Tuesday morning at a conference being organized online, I was moved by my review of the materials gathered during last year’s rapid remote resilience project to reflect on my personal impressions of the project. Over and above anything else, over the past week I have found myself moved close […]
Contextualizing design of remote interventions for local food systems resilience strategies in literature
I began my academic explorations on this blog a couple of months ago with a post on the power of sensemaking to transform the context and frame of reference, and thus provide a means for empowering one to make decisions for a decidedly unknown near future, where increased uncertainty and volatility have become the norm. […]
Will Africans lead innovation in resilience tech for sustainable lifestyles on a shoestring?
A Tanzanian startup offering a smart hydroponics kit for urban farming in limited spaces that costs around $500. Reading about the system yesterday – invented by founders Praygod Japhet and Dickson Mallya – I was moved to create a hashtag #resiliencetech on Twitter. Something about the topic made me feel that I should be keeping […]
