Exploring the intersection of Design, Systems Change, and Environmental Conservation
My top 15 books and articles from a Masters of Design
I recently handed in my thesis for my Masters of Design (MDes). It centered on how we can improve the social and environmental outcomes of environmental conservation projects, and took a slant towards systems change.
I studied part time over 2.5 years, whilst continuing to sharpen my practice of addressing complex challenges in the field, so built up a wide landscape of reading.
This post begins to explore and make accessible the research from a range of different angles, because to be honest, how many people are actually going to read a 10k word thesis these days?
That said, if you do — here’s my thesis in its entirety, as a searchable website:
Top Books
‘Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds’ by Adrienne Maree Brown, 2017.
‘Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy and the Making of Worlds’ by Arturo Escobar, 2018.
‘Design, When Everybody Designs’ by Ezio Manzini, 2015.
‘Embracing Complexity: Strategic Perspectives for an Age of Turbulence’ by Jean Boulton, Peter Allen & Cliff Bowman, 2015.
‘Convivial Toolbox: Generative Research For The Front End Of Design’ by Liz Sanders & Pieter Jan Stappers, 2013.
‘Dark Matter and Trojan Horses: A Strategic Design Vocabulary’ by Dan Hill, 2012.
Top Articles
Systems Change & Design
‘Wheeling in the Trojan Mice’ by Jackie Mahendra, 2016.
‘Systems Change — Big or Small?’ By Odin Mühlenbein, 2018.
‘Fourth Order Design : A Practical Perspective’ by Tony Golsby-Smith, 1996.
‘A Framework for Systemic Design’ by Alex Ryan, 2014.
‘Strategic design: where are we now? Reflection around the foundations of a recent discipline.’ by Anna Meroni, 2008.
Environmental
‘Accelerated modern human-induced species losses: Entering the sixth mass extinction’ by Ceballos et al, 2015.
‘The ecology of community environmental groups: Integrating restoration, partnerships and citizen science’ by Monica Peters, 2016.
‘Assessing community-based conservation projects: A systematic review and multilevel analysis of attitudinal, behavioral, ecological, and economic outcomes’ by Jeremy Brooks, Kerry Ann Waylen and Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, 2013.
‘Effective biodiversity conservation requires dynamic, pluralistic, partnership-based approaches.’ by Michael Gavin, Joe McCarter, Fikret Berkes, Aroha Te Pareake Mead, Eleanor Sterling, Ruifei Tang and Nancy Turner, 2018.
What next?
I wanted to share these reads as a starting point, even without a critical summary for each book or article, because that will take me a huge amount of time. For now, I hope this reading list is valuable to people thinking deeply about complex problems, systems change, fourth order design, sustainability and environmental conservation.
I’m going to be working on an article which lays out some of the specifics about my framing of systems change, as I think it’s a loaded concept, which all too often is thought of as ‘societal transformation’, which is a very narrow definition.
If you’re interested, a full list of references included in my research can be found here:
I’d love to hear about other books and articles which would complement my research, so feel free to respond to this post with any ideas, or say hi on twitter:
