Transitions, social practices and design : notes from a transdisciplinary research project

There is currently great interest in the idea of transitions to help bring on more sustainable societies and cultures. This is demonstrated by community led projects like Transition Towns, and government sponsored reports such as the German Advisory Council on Global Change's World in Transition: a social contract for sustainability (2011). Design has an important role to play in envisioning, redirecting and steering transitions, and is uniquely implicated in how transitions play out. Design's involvement in transitions is also changing how design is being taught and practised. This paper describes the role of design research in an ambitious transdisciplinary research project, 'Transitioning to sustainable sanitation futures', that involved trialing a novel system of sanitation in a university setting. In the context of century-old sanitation infrastructure, institutional sectors speaking at cross-purposes, embedded conventions of comfort, cleanliness and convenience in toileting and limited understanding of how specific technologies are scripting social practices, there was much to learn. The paper will detail design's involvement in the project across three action research phases. Two cohorts of visual communications design students from two universities responded to a range of briefs generated by the project team. Students designed narratives to introduce the complex scenarios presented by the project; in situ signage to aid use of the new technologies; and social engagement tools to elicit feedback and responses from end-users. The resulting artefacts influenced how the project was perceived and supported a shift in emphasis from technical to social innovation. The paper will consider implications for design research in a university setting, where niche experimentation for a broad range of stakeholders could support socio-technical transitions in the wider culture. Drawing on current transitions literature, this paper advocates for the idea of the university-based design researcher as an 'anticipatory change agent' (WBGU 2011) within such research enterprises.