Designing Systems Interventions + Future Findings
by Team Symbiosis
Ally Hopping, Master of Human-Computer Interaction
Julie Choi, Bachelor of Design with Minors in Human-Computer Interaction and Photography
Morgan Newman, Master of Public Policy and Management
Adam Cowart, Ph.D. Teaching Fellow and Researcher in Transition Design
Gentrification in Pittsburgh
At the beginning of the semester, our group chose gentrification in Pittsburgh as our wicked problem. Through our first assignment of mapping gentrification in Pittsburgh, we sought to understand the general issues that many cities face and the unique factors at play in Pittsburgh that interact to create the more significant problem. This localized mapping of the issue allowed us to move quickly to our second assignment of mapping stakeholder relations. In this assignment, we focused on power relationships between stakeholders most connected to or impacted by gentrification. We identified Property Developers/Managers, Long-term Neighborhood Residents, and The Air as those most deeply related to the issue. Our third assignment analyzed how historical circumstances at different levels of society have led to the current problem of gentrification. Our fourth assignment imagined what Pittsburgh might look like in 2075, in which the wicked problem of gentrification would be resolved. We created aspirational beacons across levels of scale (household to planetary) and wrote a design fiction narrative to explore and articulate the vision. Our final step is to design ecologies of intervention within the system, to begin to bring this future vision to life.
Architecture for Ecology of Interventions
Wicked problems like gentrification require systems interventions at every level of scale in society. To only intervene at one level would do little to change the architecture of the landscape that creates these complex problems, thus it is important to have interventions that are multifaceted and transdisciplinary. Our group discussed systems interventions at the household, neighborhood, city, state/regional, national and international scales within the areas of infrastructure/technology, politics/governance, business/economics, social and environmental. Within each of the following sections, we will highlight two or three intervention threads from each area and level of scale and explain their relevance to eradicating gentrification in Pittsburgh.
Mapping a Wicked Problem
During the first step of the transition design process, we drew a systems map of the wicked problem of gentrification in Pittsburgh organized around social issues, infrastructure, science and technology issues, environmental issues, economic and business issues, and political and legal issues. In the final assignment, we return to this organizing framework for resolving our wicked problem through ecologies of intervention.
Organizing Categories for Systems Interventions
Infrastructure
At the neighborhood level, implementing local policies that increase communal living will create new housing projects and restore buildings in neighborhoods, allowing for more living and dwelling in place. At the city level, we decided to pursue a Roots Not Roads initiative that proposes to gradually phase out roads in the city of Pittsburgh and replace them with more walkable and accessible sidewalks, bike lanes, parks, and community gardens. Of particular importance to this initiative is the need for community input on what roads should remain and which ones should be remodeled. At both the neighborhood and city level, the community is at the center of infrastructure and technology. Centering community increases social cohesion and connection to a specific place. By creating stronger communities, it is our belief that it will become harder to gentrify and change vulnerable neighborhoods.
Politics/Governance Legal
At the neighborhood level, local programs called Land Trust Fundamentals would help educate communities on setting up and managing their own land trusts by working with existing organizations like City of Bridges Community Land Trust and Oakland Land Trust. At the national level implementing Universal Basic Living is an extension of a systems intervention that has already been proposed by several progressive politicians. Universal Basic Income guarantees a certain income level for all people, and Universal Basic Housing would ensure anyone who is in need of shelter and stable housing options would receive them. At any scale, systems interventions in the area of politics and government can change the structures and institutions that make it possible for gentrification to happen. Ensuring that communities are educated and have access to resources necessary to remain in their communities will disempower developers from gentrifying low-income or unstable neighborhoods.
Business/Economic
Instituting a Mandatory Co-Op Program in Pittsburgh public schools focused on practical skills like building and refurbishment, and gardening will teach young people how to provide for themselves using the land and resources around them. Not only is this a great tool for students to utilize as a means of income, but it will continue to nurture communities, particularly those that need development. Gentrification often happens in neighborhoods that are in need of development; however, outside developers who are not a part of the local community do not know what is actually needed. By empowering young people through hands-on education programs, more neighborhoods will have voices that are able to speak to the needs of the local community.
Social
At the household level, sharing Home Sustainability Kits that provide all families with tools to be more sustainable (including composting bins and material on how to save less energy) will help reduce waste in communities. Expanding programs like Neighborhood Allies at the state or regional level will help honor Black culture in Pittsburgh and throughout the Midwest through increased endowments and funding to minority communities. Working with existing programs is an essential part of system interventions because local organizations are often already doing the work that needs to be done but suffer from funding issues. Neighborhood Allies is a nonprofit that helps reverse the effects of gentrification and urban renewal by reinvesting in communities that have been left behind.
Environmental
Similar to the Home Sustainability Kits at the city level, instituting Mandatory Composting in all households and apartment complexes will drastically reduce waste in the city. The compost can then be donated to the local gardens and community spaces created from the Roads Not Roots initiative, or to local farms. Finally, at the global level international organizations like the United Nations and World Health Organization should come together and create a Fridays For Our Future Council led by young people like Greta Thunberg who are dedicated to saving our planet through sustainable and equitable actions. The Council will hold the top 100 pollution-producing companies accountable and ensure that we create a more “green” future for generations to come. Environmental policy is closely intertwined with gentrification and poverty, as many residents of neighborhoods that are at risk of gentrification also have a higher risk of being exposed to high levels of pollution. In order to “solve” gentrification, we must also begin to solve other wicked problems like climate change.
Levels of Scale
The majority of interventions can be expressed at different levels of scale (household to planetary). A key area of debate is: at what level of scale should the intervention begin? At what level of scale is the intervention most likely to be successful? To help us determine this, we integrated Meadows’ leverage points into a grid to visually surface stronger and weaker interventions.
Iteration 1: Leverage Point Mapping
We created a map that employed both a temporal and leverage point scale, and organized interventions along these two axes. While this was a helpful exercise to organize our thinking around how diverse and effective our interventions were from a leverage point framework, the temporal scale was unhelpful as it became apparent that virtually all of our intervention projects could occur within the next several years.
Iteration 2: Leverage Point Mapping with Updated Timeline
Our second iteration involved focusing in and expanding a shorter timeline to “space out” our interventions more. While this was helpful in creating some temporal variation, this surfaced for us a new challenge. Our interventions could arguably intervene at more than one leverage point. We needed a visual map that captured a multiplicity of leverage points with which our interventions could nudge the system.
Iteration 3: Mapping Interventions/Scale at Multiple Leverage Points
The third and final iteration reintroduced scale along with STEEP represented by color. This iteration, while perhaps not perfect, provides a compelling representation of feasibility and desirability-like matrix. Those interventions that are situated closest to the intersect of the axis represent the most immediate and powerful opportunities. They represent areas in which citizens have the greatest agency (Household) and highest leverage point (Paradigm). Hence, this representation is valuable both for gaining perspective on the proposed interventions, as well as developing a strategy for where to begin.
Conclusion
The ecologies of intervention we’ve recommended should not be viewed in isolation. As part of the first assignment, we mapped the wicked problem of gentrification in Pittsburgh, including nested and connected wicked problems that resided on the edges of our own system mapping. Those wicked problems are: Deforestation in Pittsburgh, Isolation of the Elderly in Pittsburgh, Lack of Public Transportation in Pittsburgh, and Lack of Access to Affordable Housing in Pittsburgh. It is important to acknowledge that, as thorough and comprehensive as our ecology of interventions may be, it is still nested within and connected to many other wicked problems. A truly comprehensive approach would entail an additional step in our transition design exploration, in which the ecologies of intervention from each wicked problem were brought together under a single, complex meta-ecology.
Final Reflections
Gentrification in Pittsburgh is a wicked problem that has manifested from the systematic design decisions made since the preindustrial era. While researching this topic over the course of the semester, we were faced with many layers of entangled problems that are challenging to tackle, especially upon examining the vast amount of stakeholders, infrastructures, and interactions involved. Although we researched the problem in-depth, it is important to note that our discoveries and insights were solely based on secondary research. If we had the opportunity to take this project to the next level, the focus would be on building relationships with the primary stakeholders highlighted in our second assignment to ensure the nuanced perspectives of those at the heart of the issue would be properly represented and considered.
We believe large-scale change can begin on an individual level when people begin to internalize new ways of thinking about a problem. For this to happen, we as advocates need to understand that trying to tackle this wicked problem also means that people’s lives will be impacted. Engaging with stakeholders who have lived experience with gentrification in Pittsburgh would make us true facilitators of change, in which we foster collaboration, promote resolution of stakeholder conflicts, and facilitate a shared vision for a more sustainable future.
We’ve also learned that to truly address a wicked problem, designers must break out of the framework of human-centered design because this concept is deeply rooted in the efforts of capitalism marketed to customers for easy and effortless interactions. It fails to consider non-human stakeholders, community cohesion, or pro-social outcomes, focusing instead on optimizing individual or corporate benefits. The stakeholders that exist within these wicked problems show that humans are just one part of the interconnected issue at hand, rather than the center of the solution. Therefore, issues entangled across disciplines can only be solved with a much broader design framework that focuses on building harmony and equity between all stakeholders of our planet, both living and nonliving.
Our experience in this class may be coming to an end, but each of us will carry with us a new and powerful set of frameworks for problem-solving and design. As we look to the future and embark on interdisciplinary pathways, each of us will be prepared to consider not just the problems we are trying to solve, but how they connect to the complex world we live in.
