How can social innovation be made more visible and accessible? We explore this question and experiment with speculative design to make new narratives of social innovation tangible and easier to understand. For the project Ting, we are designing a speculative object and publishing the process and methodology in a playbook.
Good ideas are not enough
There are many good ideas for a sustainable future. Social innovation projects are constantly coming up with new solutions that make sense ecologically, economically and socially. And yet, many of these ideas fail to catch on. Why is that?
Our thesis: social innovation rarely fails because of the quality of the solution, but often because of the narrative. Projects develop new ways of living together, but assume that their perspective will be understood. This results in a communication style that hinders rather than promotes dialogue: projects speak from a position of expertise and only reach their target audience to a limited extent.
The result: good solutions encounter an unprepared counterpart – and fizzle out. The change in mindset that social innovation actually requires does not take place, and socially deeply rooted images – for example, what ownership means – remain untouched.
Workshop participants
Speculative design
This is where our project comes in. We are developing a tool that improves communication and the dissemination of social innovation. And we are doing so in a way that facilitates genuine dialogue between project teams and the public. We are using a speculative design method to create ‘conversation objects’: ambivalent, ambiguous artefacts that do not lecture, but rather provoke, inspire and encourage discussion.
Speculative design is a transdisciplinary approach to futurology that explores alternative social models through the design of speculative artefacts, thereby promoting critical reflection, public debate and imagination. The artefacts are not products in the traditional sense, but serve as catalysts for reflection and discussion.
Lively final discussion
You absolutely must spread the word about this method, it could really make a difference!
Feedback from workshop participants
A speculative object for Ting and a playbook
Using this methodology, we are developing a speculative object for the project Ting as part of the Innovation Booster Future Urban Society. Ting is a community that shares money, creates time and enables change. An openly licensed playbook (Creative Commons) documents the entire development process: from the analysis of existing, entrenched narratives and the challenges of communicating social innovation to the design of new images and speculative artefacts. The playbook developed at the end of the project will be a practical guide on how the methodology can be transferred to other projects – a tool for all those who want to make their vision of a sustainable future visible, discussable and culturally compatible.
New narratives for your project?
We show how speculative design sparks discussions and makes ideas tangible.
