TALE: A Possible Theme called “Frame for Future”

Oliver Ding

Published in

TALE500

8 min readApr 2, 2023

What we can learn from Sustainability Reporting

The above picture represents a Possible Theme called “Frame for Future”.

Name: Frame for Future
Clue: What we can learn from Sustainability Reporting
Type: knowledge theme
Contributors: Alice Schmidt
Reference: #sustainabilityreporting

The theme of “Frame for Future” was inspired by a Linkedin post about Sustainability Reporting. On March 31, 2023, Alice Schmidt shared the following diagram on Linkedin.

Alice offers a simple summary of an article about the landscape of sustainability reporting.

Clients often ask me to help them navigate the jungle of #sustainabilityreporting frameworks and regulations. This chart by Rabobank provides a great overview for anyone trying to find their way through this maze. Their topline assessment is also spot on:

🧩 GROWING DEMANDS ON COMPANIES: …
🧩 MULTIPLE GOALS AND FRAMEWORKS: …
🧩 TOP THREE: …
🧩 AGILE APPROACH: …
🧩 EXPERTISE IS ESSENTIAL: …

You can find more details in her post.

Her post inspired me to write a short post titled “Frame for Work: The Case of #sustainability”. It leads to the possible theme of “Frame for Future”.

Frame for Work

One significant insight I captured in January is “Ecological Formism”.

In January, I worked on the thematic conversation project about “Strategic Exploration” with Daiana Zavate. We have two primary themes for this project.

Daiana’s primary theme: “Strategic Exploration”
Oliver’s primary theme: “Knowledge Engagement”

From my perspective, this project can be seen as a process of Developing a Knowledge Framework. The significant insight I developed from this project is the function of Thematic Space for developing a knowledge framework. You can find more details in The Dynamics of Thematic Space (v2.0).

During the process, I worked on developing the following two ideas:

Theme Network
Possible Configurations

I used “a possible configuration of a theme network” to describe the structure of the things inside the thematic space. Moreover, I developed the notion of “Ecological Formism” with the following distinction:

Possible: many possible configurations of a theme network
Actual: a particular configuration of a theme network
Representation: a diagram of a particular configuration

This is a major outcome of the project from my perspective. On Jan 30, 2023, I realized that the further task is to develop a new ontology of knowledge frameworks after publishing the post about the Field of Meta-learning (v1.0).

In order to remember this significant insight, I made the following cover and used “Frame for Work” as a new possible theme.

One year ago, I made a typology of knowledge frameworks. I roughly list six purposes of making knowledge frameworks.

Explanation
Research
Intervention
Exploration
Reflection
Remember

You can find more details in Knowledge Discovery: The “Frameworks — Insights” Mapping.

In Dec 2022, I also made the following diagram for a private discussion about “Frameworks” and “Knowledge-in-use”.

I also collected some interesting papers for the “Frame for Work” project.

For example, I learned a theory called “Configurational Theory” from a paper titled The Disciplinary Identity of HCI Research: An Investigation Using Configurational Theory (Erik Stolterman & Jordan Beck, 2022). According to the authors, Configurational theories are used as frames of reference that define the object of study of a discipline.

Configurational theories constitute unique frames of reference for the objects they describe. Configurational theory commonly focuses on how elements and their relationships constitute a whole. Hillier, a prominent advocate for config- urational approaches, writes that architecture can be seen “as fundamentally configurational in that the way the parts are put together to form the whole is more important than any of the parts taken in isolation” (Hillier, 2007, p. 1). A configurational theory emphasizes the composition of elements and their relationships that make up a whole. The composition generates new and different meanings that could not be achieved in isolation.
For example, the traditional notion of HCI can be seen as a composition consisting of two elements “human” and “computer” with “interaction” as the relationship. A configurational theory will emphasize the existence, arrangement, and interaction between the elements at the cost of more precise definitions of what exactly could or should constitute the element. This is how the notion of HCI functions already today. We can find a wide variety of definitions of the elements “human” and “computer,” while most refer to the simple configural composition consisting of two elements (H and C) and their relationship (I). This ability to create a common object of study by focusing on loosely defined core elements and their relationships is what advo- cates see as the strength of a configurational theory. It makes it possible for people with different understandings of the elements to communicate and build knowledge that can be relevant even to those with different understandings of the details.
Another key aspect of a configurational approach is its emphasis on building theory from the ground up rather than by applying existing theoretical frames of reference, which are imbued with values and meanings from other disciplines.
…
A configurational theory that defines the object of study of a discipline can have different purposes. The purpose will shape the criteria we use to evaluate its benefits and quality. We see the purpose of our proposed configurational theory to serve as a frame of reference for the core object of study in the field.

The “Configurational Theory” approach is a great knowledge resource for the “Frame for Work” project.

Frame for Future: The Case of #Sustainability

Today, I realized that it is possible to use #Sustainability Frameworks as examples for the “Frame for Work” project.

From these frameworks, we can find a thematic space about “#sustainability”.

If we adopt the perspective of Ecological Formism, then we can run a case study.

Step 1: find a network of themes behind the primary theme.

We can use these frameworks as data to find the set of networked keywords.

Step 2: use the “Possible (Actual)” structure to discuss each framework

Possible: many possible configurations of a theme network
Actual: a particular configuration of a theme network
Representation: a diagram of a particular configuration

Step 3: use the Strategic Curation Model to evaluate each framework.

The Strategic Curation Model is a five-space model.

Experience Space: It refers to the facts of the Past.
Challenge Space: It refers to the problems in the Present
Response Space: It refers to the solutions for the Future
Reference Space: It refers to reliable and validated knowledge for thinking
Speculative Space: It refers to imaginative thinking such as Counterfactual Thinking about the Past and Prefactual Thinking about the Future.

What does Strategic Curation mean?

It refers to using a specific strategy to curate pieces of experience, knowledge, and resources into a meaningful whole for a better future.
4. Step 4: use the Thematic Landscape Map to see a real map of “practices” around the theme “#sustainability”

You can find more details in A Five-space Model for Strategic Curation Activity.

Step 5: Connect creators behind each framework and conduct interviews

This idea is similar to the “Design as Creative Life” project.

TALE: A Possible Theme called “Frame for Future”

Frame for Work

Frame for Future: The Case of #Sustainability

Step 1: find a network of themes behind the primary theme.

Step 2: use the “Possible (Actual)” structure to discuss each framework

Step 3: use the Strategic Curation Model to evaluate each framework.

Step 5: Connect creators behind each framework and conduct interviews

Step 6: Edit a possible book titled “Frame for Work: What we can learn from #sustainabilityreporting”

Reference:

Related Articles

Written by Oliver Ding