March 4, Monday: Theories of Change: Social Practice Theory and Case Study Assignment
The first activity planned for the class was geared towards the case-study assignment. The goal of the seminar is to make the theories of transition design more accessible and encourage us to apply it to our studio and other classes. The best way to combine both is through the case study review and proposal. After giving a brief explanation of the process of going about the case study, everyone was asked to write down 2–3 areas that they were interested in. These were then put onto a whiteboard so that groups of people could be formed based on interest.
Once it was all up, everyone added their names to the post it they thought was most interesting.
Team formation was followed by a presentation by Kakee
Analysing Social Practice theory from the lenses of image, stuff, skills and the relationships between them leads to a complex network of intersection connections. Laying this over a Multi-Level Perspective mao over time would surface ‘patterns of practices’. Practices used as units of analysis could be used to redefine practices as units of design — ‘the dance of design and practices’
Each group then moved to creating their own MLPs for their target areas.
The final maps followed the same grid with the same elements on the X and Y axes but the questions that emerged as a result of the exercise were different group to group.
