Track 5.a Introduction: Transforming Complexities through Design in Collaborative Community-based Processes

Abstract

Complexity is a key characteristic of many participatory and community-oriented design activities. Designers’ varied roles are being transformed as they have to manage the complexities and entanglements associated with global societal, technological and environmental change. As design turns towards a social mode of operation and application, this session ‘Transforming Complexities through Design in Collaborative Community-based Processes’ seeks to open a discourse on the role of design in managing the complexities that affect communities and individuals, alongside their attendant processes and practices. A range of approaches, skills and competencies currently demonstrated across instances and experiences of complexity, and across a range of contexts for collaborative and community-oriented design, are mapped through the contributions in this track.