DISCERN: International Journal of Design for Social Change, Sustainable Innovation and Entrepreneurship
DISCERN, the International Journal of Design for Social Change, Sustainable Innovation, and Entrepreneurship, is an independent, cross-disciplinary, and open-access publication that promotes academic research and exchange in the expansive area of design for social change and innovation. This field encompasses sustainability, social entrepreneurship, and the circular economy. The editorial board comprises a diverse team of academics and researchers who guide the journal. Various submissions are welcome, including original research articles (conceptual, theoretical, and empirical), review articles, research case studies, shorter reports, work-in-progress reports, book reviews, and discussions on articles and dialogues. We encourage submissions that relate to the Sustainable Development Goals.
The pedagogy of discomfort: Transformational experiential learning
Education is intended to be a transformative experience for the student. In the practice of transformative pedagogy, instructors provide students with the time and space to explore their own sets of beliefs, values and standards and how they incorporate those beliefs into their work, subconsciously and consciously. At times, transformative pedagogy can be uncomfortable. However, the value of discomfort in the pedagogical process of a design course is the ability to acknowledge a knowledge gap between one’s social experiences and the experiences of other social identities. This paper focuses on the value of transformative pedagogy in working through discomfort when learning about limit situations, developing a foundation for transformative pedagogy in a course setting, the importance of critical thinking in transformative pedagogy and how transformative pedagogy is presented with a focus on ethics, disability and responsible design. By embedding ethics, critical consciousness and strategic thinking, the process translates into a transformative practice of design and innovation. Students learn new emerging ways of affecting change with a multiplicity of ideas when educators engage in transformative pedagogy. It is also to ascertain what kind of learning enables people to create solutions for communities involved in a continuously ongoing process of defining sustainable development.
Copyright (c) 2025 Lisa Elzey Mercer, Deana McDonagh https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
South African fashion design entrepreneurs’ awareness and practices of sustainable fashion supply chain operations
The textile and clothing industry intensifies pollution through the production of fast fashion clothes. The increase in fast fashion clothes imports in South Africa has led to the closure of textile factories and consequent loss of jobs. Sustainable development is a pathway to reducing socio-environmental, cultural and economic harm. Sustainable processes and products create new employment. Fashion design entrepreneurs are often involved and have influence in every supply chain of their business and are thus in one of the best positions to implement sustainable fashion supply chain operations. This qualitative study aimed to investigate South African fashion design entrepreneurs’ awareness and practices of sustainable fashion supply chain operations. Participants were selected purposively, and data was collected through semi-structured interviews. The results indicated that most of the participants were aware of sustainable fabrics through personal research. Half of them source and produce sustainable garments on a small scale due to the high price of sustainable fabrics. All the participants had limited knowledge of sustainable design methods. All the participants save their fabric offcuts, and only half of them are motivated by environmental concerns. Furthermore, the results indicated a lack of systems to manage the recycling of fabric offcuts. Given that there are few sustainable fashion design entrepreneurs in South Africa, the study recommends that textile and clothing industry leaders, especially sustainability practitioners, disseminate knowledge and training across the board on sustainable supply chain operations.
Copyright (c) 2025 Nailejileji Mollel-Matodzi, Anne Mastamet Masonb, Nalini Moodley-Diar https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Innovating with social justice: Anti-oppressive social work design framework
The world is experiencing myriad social, economic and political challenges that have exasperated inequities across communities. While there have been significant efforts to respond to the challenges, dwindling funds, hierarchical organizational structures, and an over-reliance on traditional methodologies have impacted the ability to create systemic changes. These limitations have paved the way for social innovation to create novel ideas to address social issues. Innovation has predominantly come from the field of business, engineering, design and public policy. Surprisingly, social work, with a professional mandate of advocating for social change and uplifting the voices of communities has made limited contributions to the field of social innovation. This paper introduces Anti-Oppressive Social Work Design (AOSWD) framework, which integrates the principles of anti-oppressive social work practice and a design method, Human-Centred Design (HCD). It explains how social workers can use AOSWD to develop collaborative power through empathy-building, co-creation and integrated feedback. Through the establishment of collaborative power, it explains how the role of HCD can be expanded from an approach to develop user-friendly programs, to a tool for social workers to create a change in thinking in how they view and tackle complex issues. A case example of its implementation in a non-profit organization in Seattle, WA has been provided. The paper has implications for social service professionals in the areas of training, organizational design, research and evaluation.
Copyright (c) 2025 Aakanksha Sinhaa https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Co-design for social innovation and organisational change: Developing horizontal relationships in a social enterprise through walking
Although an emerging body of literature identifies co-design as a promising approach to addressing the most urgent social challenges, little research has been undertaken about how co-design can support social change within the communities and organisations with which they collaborate. This is important because behavioural and organisational change is usually associated with the emergence of social innovations. These pressing socio-cultural challenges require interdisciplinary expertise, and we argue that the practice of co-design is an approach that provides such expertise. Co-design by its nature is collaborative and can respond to the cultural demands of a society eager to participate. These demands require significant research to better understand how the practice of co-design can be a catalyst for social change and social innovation. In this paper, we explore what is meant by co-creation, social design, and co-design within the theoretical context of this study. We present a case study that focuses on a social enterprise committed to sustainability operating within the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Here we examine the transformative process - associated with co-design - that the social enterprise and its members encountered. Participatory Action Research (PAR) was implemented as the research approach to this study informed by ethnographic and co-design methods. The analysis suggests that the co-design process empowered the social enterprise and its members, enabling them to co-develop responsive and empathetic attitudes among themselves. Co-design supported organisational changes by nurturing collaborative attitudes, expanding perspectives about social issues and releasing latent human abilities and assets.
Copyright (c) 2025 Mirian Calvoa https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Consumers’ purchase intention towards eco-friendly packaging in Kidapawan City, the Philippines
The severity of the plastic problem in the Philippines has prompted the public and private sectors to take measures to address it. As the country shifts to sustainable ways, information about green consumer behaviour is essential to effectively implement policies and programmes. This study aimed to determine consumers’ level of purchase intention towards eco-friendly packaging, whether a significant difference in consumers’ purchase intention exists when they are grouped according to socio-demographic characteristics and identify the factors that significantly affect consumers’ purchase intention. A total of 393 consumers from Kidapawan City were selected as respondents using purposive random sampling. The results revealed that respondents have a high level of purchase intention for eco-friendly packaging. There were also significant differences in the level of purchase intention when the respondents were grouped according to age and sex. Notably, females had a higher level of purchase intention. The findings from the hierarchical moderated regression analysis show that attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, environmental concern, awareness, willingness to pay and quality significantly and positively influence purchase intention towards eco-friendly packaging. In particular, it willingness to pay, quality and awareness strongly affect purchase intention. Meanwhile, the moderating variables do not affect the dependent and independent variables. The results of the study infer that purchase intention is greater among consumers when they have favourable attitudes and supportive social circles, perceive that it is easy to buy eco-friendly packaging, are more willing to support or participate in environmental initiatives, more knowledgeable, more willing to pay and have a positive perception of the quality of eco-friendly packaging.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ma. Karysa F. Garcia, Karl P. Campos https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Heroic Journeys: on design for empowerment and narratives of social change
Can empowerment be designed? Designers often claim to empower the people and communities they work with, yet there is little critical discourse on how empowerment is defined, facilitated and achieved in social design projects. This paper draws on social and political theories to redefine empowerment within design for social change, positioning it as a political activity to address power imbalances and foster individual and collective potential. To guide best practices in design-led interventions, we present four Design for Empowerment (DfE) principles grounded in Empowerment Theory and introduce Heroic Journeys, a conceptual framework co-created with community organisers and social designers through participatory design workshops. This approach facilitates the implementation of power analysis and narrative techniques to uncover diverse stories of change, advocating for design practices that are transformative, inclusive, and responsive to the contextual complexities of design for social change projects.
Copyright (c) 2024 Laura Santamaria, Ksenija Kuzmina https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Special supplement: III ESDA DESIS Social Design Days, 11-12 March 2024, Zaragoza, Spain
The idea of compiling this supplement for DISCERN Journal arose after the celebration of the ESDA DESIS SOCIAL DESIGN Days’ third edition in March 2024, attended by seven international professors who are experts in teaching social design. The Escuela Superior de Diseño de Aragón (ESDA) is a small educational institution with 300 students and 70 teachers, but with the particularity that more than half of the staff are involved in social design educational projects.
Copyright (c) 2024 Cecilia Casas-Romero (Ed.) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Reviewer Acknowledgements for Discern: International Journal of Design for Social Change, Sustainable Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Vol. 5, No. 2
Copyright (c) 2024 Editorial Team https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Housing, entryways and social architecture in poor borderlands of Mexicali
This article presents a methodological approach to the insecurity associated with urban peripheries, using the western area of Mexicali, Baja California as a case study. Its focus is on the security of homes, the urban environment and inclusive communities, which serve as a protective mechanism, ranging from collaborative reinforcement of fences with recycled materials to neighbourhood surveillance networks that protect homes. Using the architectural design as inspiration, a prototype of security portals was created, highlighting the importance of local construction knowledge, recycling of materials and using interconnections between the home and the street. The dataset consists of field research conducted between January 2023 and June 2024. A triple method of analysis was used: (1) classification of facades within a polygon of several neighbourhoods in the Centinela area; (2) descriptive statistics based on a survey of perceived security in each street of the study area; and (3) participatory workshops to design urban strategies using materials obtained in the surroundings. The result is a proposal for entryways referred to as ‘sidewalkdesign’ because it combines the transition between the home, the sidewalk and the street, promotes neighbourhood spaces for meeting and cooperation and, most of all, ensures that homes remain safe through physical barriers and natural surveillance.
Copyright (c) 2024 Carlos Rios Llamas, Saúl Luque Sanz https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
This research article explores the transformative journey of Bolt Threads, a pioneering biomaterials firm operating at the intersection of biotechnology and fashion. First, the research paper sets the background and provides the research question. Second, the existing literature is reviewed to investigate sustainable entrepreneurship within the fashion industry, exploring sustainable fashion concepts and highlighting sustainable entrepreneurs’ challenges. Third, the research paper examines Bolt Threads as a case study to redefine fashion systems, design activism, cultural sustainability, design for social change and social entrepreneurship. The case study thoroughly examines Bolt Threads’ founding story, business model, innovative technologies and strategic initiatives, underscoring the company’s dedication to sustainability and technological advancement. This case study analyses Bolt Threads collaborations with renowned fashion brands, financial strategies, the potential for industry-wide adoption and outlook. Bolt Threads demonstrates that. sustainable innovation requires thinking beyond traditional materials and methods. This approach shows that transformative change in sustainability involves looking outside the industry’s usual practices and integrating technology in unexpected ways, which can lead to groundbreaking materials that still align with fashion’s functional and aesthetic standards. Partnerships with major players help start-ups accelerate market acceptance, increase consumer trust and create broader demand for sustainable products. These alliances demonstrate that aligning with influential brands can be a strategic move for sustainable companies seeking scalability and industry-wide adoption.
Copyright (c) 2024 Anel van Rooyen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
3D woven denim as an exemplary design-manufacturing technique to shape sustainable fashion ecosystems
Today’s fashion industry is marked by rapid production, early disposal and low-quality materials, resulting in environmental harm and social injustice. Denim production involves a resource-intensive and extended supply chain with entrenched design practices, leading to substantial pre-consumer waste. To address these issues, emerging design manufacturing techniques hold promise for fostering alternative sustainable fashion ecosystems yet remain largely underexplored by the industry. The current work focuses on 3D weaving, an innovative niche design manufacturing technique that enables the production of near-complete garments, facilitating zero waste and reducing labour-intensive steps at the cut-and-sew stage. Employing a qualitative approach informed by the literature and empirical research with denim industry professionals, this study investigates the potential of this novel design manufacturing technique in the context of systemic change beyond merely introducing technological advancement as an intervention in the existing industry. The analysis reveals four fundamental components: industry-led change, relocalisation, reimagining denim design roles and consumer communication. These key components, synthesised with the literature, are discussed respectively. We illustrate how the niche design manufacturing technique can shape novel fashion ecosystems by providing an exemplary concept which concerns the collaborative establishment of a small-scale local supply chain for 3D woven denim garments. Through this example, we aim to ignite discussions on a further reimagining of the fashion industry, utilising similar alternative lenses that prioritise sustainability over ultra-speed, high efficiency and mass production in alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) and 17 (Partnerships for the Goals).
Copyright (c) 2024 Ir. Sterre L. de Jager, Dr. Holly L. McQuillan, Dr. Ingrid J. Mulder https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
The fashion design sector stands to gain from embracing cosmopolitan localism (CL), allowing designers to merge global trends with local cultures. This strategy fosters distinct, sustainable identities that resonate with their communities. This literature review focused on sustainable fashion design practices, searching the literature in databases that included Google Scholar, IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, SpringerLink and ScienceDirect. The review emphasizes the relationship between traditional craftsmanship, innovation and minimizing environmental impact through global and local collaborations. Of 169 articles that met the basic eligibility criteria—focusing on sustainable practices such as ethical sourcing and consumer engagement—only five authors discussed CL. This reveals a notable gap in the literature regarding the in-depth application and evaluation of CL in sustainable fashion design. Nonetheless, key principles are apparent, such as strengthening supply chain connections to promote ethical practices, fair wages and sustainable sourcing; fostering meaningful consumer relationships through narrative-driven brand communication and values-based messaging to build brand loyalty and encourage lasting purchasing behaviours; and participating in global sustainability initiatives while remaining informed about best practices and industry standards. This clarifies how supply chain dynamics and consumer engagement impact sustainable fashion. This review examines recent applications of small, local, open, and connected (SLOC) principles in sustainability research, emphasizing their role in adapting global influences on local cultures and values. Furthermore, it emphasizes the interrelations among supply chain dynamics, consumer engagement and global sustainability frameworks in promoting a more sustainable fashion industry.
Copyright (c) 2024 Siviwe Jack, Prof LJ Theo , Dr. A. Chisin https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Effects of rural entrepreneurship on community development in Zambia
Rural entrepreneurship plays a crucial role in fostering the development of rural communities and nations at large. This study aimed to investigate the role of rural entrepreneurship in delivering community development. The study employed a quantitative approach, in which a structured questionnaire containing four indicator variables identified from the literature was administered to 197 respondents drawn from entrepreneurs involved in agriculture, retail, building construction, transportation business and metal fabrication operating in the rural areas of Copperbelt province, Zambia. The data were analysed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and regression analysis. The EFA results revealed that entrepreneurship was explained by four factors: entrepreneurial characteristics, business conception, business realization and business operation. However, the regression analysis established that of the four factors explaining entrepreneurship, only two factors, entrepreneurial characteristics and business operation, were significant in predicting community development in Copperbelt rural areas. Overall, this paper reaffirms that entrepreneurship plays a critical role in rural community development, leading to improved living standards, employment opportunities, alleviation of poverty and reduced rural-urban migration. Rural entrepreneurship is an essential stimulant of economic growth in developing countries.
Copyright (c) 2024 Sampa Chisumbe, Peter Mukalula , Clinton Aigbavboa, Erastus Mwanaumo, Thandiwe Mbewe https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Drum magazine project: A decolonial shift in teaching fashion theory and history
The Drum Magazine Project is a cross-institutional teaching and research project designed to explore a decolonial approach to teaching fashion theory and history. The project used the 1950s and 1960s archives of Drum magazine, found at Bailey's African History Archives (BAHA) in Johannesburg, South Africa. Fashion was considered by looking at South Africa's political, social, and cultural landscape during the 1950s and 1960s. Students wrote biographical essays based on individuals who, despite having been featured in Drum magazine, were not widely documented in South Africa. Essay writing was followed by developing magazine covers designed to capture themes related to these individuals. The text- and visual-based modes enabled students to deploy historical media archives using fashion and dress to communicate narratives of alternative fashion histories and imaginaries. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to analyse students' impressions of the magazine, the individuals they researched and the overall project. In some instances, students expressed the view that incorporating this part of South African history into fashion curricula can be uncomfortable but that addressing history in its fullness is necessary to achieve decolonial imperatives and shifts. For these reasons, this study contributes to the decolonial fashion discourse by showing how infusing context-specific examples in teaching and learning offers options for renewing, stretching, and decentering the teaching of fashion theory and history.
Copyright (c) 2024 Khaya Mchunu, Kiara https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Reviewer Acknowledgements for Discern: International Journal of Design for Social Change, Sustainable Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Vol. 5, No. 1
Historically, the textile heritage of minorities has often been subjected to cultural appropriation practices (Young, 2008) or systematically undervalued and ‘othered’ as ‘non-fashion’, as such ‘sacrifice zones’ do not sit within the confines of specific fashion systems (Niessen, 2020). Designers are often ‘parachuted’ into marginalised or disadvantaged communities premised on bringing their knowledge and expertise to solve other people’s problems. However, there is growing recognition of the need to ‘decolonise’ such dominant approaches in collaborative design practice (Escobar, 2018; Mignolo, 2018; Tunstall, 2023). Different methods have been applied, sometimes in tandem, to tackle the challenges that face us as well as define new roles for the designer under different contexts, such as design activism (Fuad-Luke, 2009, 2017), design for social justice (Constanza-Chock, 2020), social entrepreneurship (Martin & Osberg, 2007) and policy design (Bason, 2014; Kimbell et al., 2023).
Copyright (c) 2024 Francesco Mazzarella, Seher Mirza https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Traditionally researched craft and textile histories have often been criticised for being uncritical. Research in the field of Indian crafts has been preoccupied with object-led studies of craft techniques. The popular imagination buys into the mythologies depicted and the ‘discourse of patronage, kings, empresses, saints and a “golden” age of craft work’. This paper reassesses a similarly uncritical history of the South Indian textile craft Kalamkari by foregrounding the artisan’s perspective in this craft’s narrative. Keystone texts on Kalamkari and chintz are read critically, using a postcolonial lens to reject the academic tradition of normalising colonial encroachments on traditional knowledge and underrepresenting the artisan’s capacity for artistry and creativity. While artisans have been denied learning resources and systemically excluded from all forms of discursive place-making in cultural studies, such as in literature, galleries, museums and academia, findings from this critical reading are integrated with interview responses from contemporary Kalamkari artisans. This enables the exploration of their material and cultural mediations and attitudes towards community, labour, creativity and ownership. By studying the impact of coloniality on Indian craft and attempting to bridge the gap between the theory and practice of Kalamkari, this paper hopes to encourage more craft narratives that are critical of craft’s place as a communal, creative practice and industry within today’s global capitalist fashion system.
Copyright (c) 2024 Pallavi Chamarty https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Exploring the design motifs of Wollo Gabi in Ethiopian textiles and design development of women’s fashion accessories
Ethiopia, renowned for its rich tradition of craftsmanship, particularly in textiles, boasts a variety of regional styles and fabric types utilised in traditional and everyday attire. This study represented a collaborative effort between two universities, Arizona State University in the United States and Wollo University in Ethiopia, explicitly focusing on Wollo Gabi, an intricately patterned, gauze-like handwoven fabric of symbolic significance. Embarking on this endeavour were four design researchers who have explored Wollo Gabi's historical lineage, production techniques and contemporary applications. Subsequently, our endeavours evolved to encompass the conceptualisation and development of designs intending to demonstrate Gabi’s commercial potential in the US market. We employed a practice-based approach working with artisans to integrate diverse perspectives into the design process, fostering a more inclusive design process for product and brand development.
Copyright (c) 2024 Hazal Gumus Ciftci, Tewodros Tenagne, Temesgen Agazhie, Michael Reta https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
The decentralisation of fashion education in Northeast England through collaborative practice between education, communities and industry
This article focuses on a collaboration between educators at higher education institutions in the UK, reflecting on fashion education in Northeast England and how it is evolving to support and diversify aspirations for the arts outside London. The project is supported by research backed by the British Fashion Council, aiming to explore regional initiatives to enable young creatives to have stable careers in fashion and the arts across the UK. This paper demonstrates how examples of this have been implemented through the work of the community education group This is Creative Enterprise, UAL, Teesside and Northumbria universities, through building pathways from schools to universities and encouraging dialogue between schools, industry, higher education and community groups. Case studies demonstrate participatory research projects that encourage responsible engagement with fashion, supporting regional growth, community engagement and a decentralised vision.
Copyright (c) 2024 Gayle Cantrell, Berni Yates, Lynne Hugill, Sophie Wetherell , Jennifer Barrett, Stephen Murray https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
An exhibition review of Designed for Life that coincided with the opening of the new London College of Fashion (LCF) campus at UAL’s new East Bank home on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in October 2023. Exploring the exhibition's diverse projects employing textiles, design, film, photography, artefacts, testimonies and community building, the review considers both the affect of witnessing and the transformative power of creative action for a future fashion system that will expand the possibilities for people to live well together in a more-than-human world, will shift the contemporary narratives of emergency, to (k)new narratives of emergence towards radically new ways of living.
Copyright (c) 2024 Erica de Greef https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Sustainability culture and fashion enterprises
The potential role of co-design in the fashion industry and system toward a more sustainable future and as a critical action for social change can be addressed through the role design assumes in an organisation. This article describes a strategy to develop a sustainable consumption culture through participatory design activities. It does so by reconstructing the collaboration between a company and a local third-sector entity promoting co-design for social innovation. The methods used to drive this collaboration included ideation techniques and intensive co-design workshops aimed at developing a recognisable sustainable brand and understanding sustainability-related topics for the company’s customers. Strategies, design probes and replicable design tools emerging from the workshop were applied as innovative actions. This collaboration provided several experiences that, on the one hand, allowed the identification of new company strategies for supporting sustainability in the fashion industry and, on the other hand, created the condition to systematically adopt co-design instruments for providing social change through company actions.
Copyright (c) 2024 Daniele Busciantella-Ricci, Marco Berni, Andrea Del Bono https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Reviewer Acknowledgements for Discern: International Journal of Design for Social Change, Sustainable Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Vol. 4, No. 2
Copyright (c) 2023 Editorial Team https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Building preferred futures for human privacy through service design
Designers are increasingly confronted with challenges that have a wide social and political impact. In particular, we identify threats to people’s informational privacy as a worrying challenge for human beings. Scholars concerned with surveillance capitalism and society denounce that the massive extrapolation and use of people’s information leads to its commodification and jeopardizes the possibility for ‘data subjects’ to be really free and autonomous in their choices. According to commonly accepted paradigms of design ethics, designers are now called upon to tackle macro-issues with broad relevance for entire communities. Hence data privacy should be a concern for design and designers. Among design disciplines and practices, we identify service design as the practice that should naturally be more concerned with privacy for its focus on interactions, and because contemporary services necessarily involve the collection and processing of people’s data. This paper assesses the role of service designers in identifying preferred futures for privacy and designing accordingly. Building on a multidisciplinary literature review, the paper addresses an existing gap in service design. Moving from servitization scenarios, the paper creates a vital link between service design and informational privacy as a universal human idea. Expanding on contributions from ethics traditions and approaches, the paper sets the foundations of privacy ethics for service design. Within this framework, finally, this work discusses how service designers should define preferred futures for privacy and lead the creative process of designing ethically-minded solutions for privacy.
Copyright (c) 2023 Davide Maria Parrilli, Rodrigo Hernández-Ramírez https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
A review of community and connectivity strategies for the acceleration of sustainable transitions
Cross-disciplinary understanding of strategies for stimulating transitional change is critical, in the face of the escalating climate crisis (Newell et al., 2022). If we are to meaningfully stimulate and accelerate transitions toward more sustainable practices, we must foster community and connectivity within and across disciplines. This article presents the findings of a literature review on physical and digital community organization and connectivity strategies, articulating the potential of participation and knowledge sharing within communities to stimulate meaningful change. Eight physical, community-based strategies are reviewed and analysed, alongside four digital strategies. The selection of physical strategies conveys a range of tried-and-tested methods of stimulating change, while the review of digital strategies explores how traditional methods have been adapted into the digital age. The physical strategies reviewed include: community of practice, social entrepreneurship, community of interest, community capacity building, game changers, disruptors, intersectional activism and mass mobilization. The digital strategies reviewed include: digital mobilization, virtual community of practice, digital storytelling and digital artefacts. Middle-out approaches to change are particularly focussed upon, as they are most effective for individual actors within disciplines wishing to stimulate change (Janda & Parag, 2011; Simpson et al., 2020). By bringing together into one place an analysis of a range of existing approaches, this review takes an initial step toward establishing a cross-disciplinary library of community organizing and connectivity strategies. The aspiration is that this will support the collective benefit of all disciplines seeking to accelerate sustainable, transitional change.
Copyright (c) 2023 Michael Murray, Dr Emina Kristina Petrovic https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Up-skilling marginalised south Asian women based in the UK through a home decor social enterprise
The international fashion industry is heavily reliant on Asian manufacturers, and most garment workers are predominantly South Asian women who work in deplorable conditions and face abuse from their employers. Furthermore, despite the growing demand for British-made goods, the fashion and textile manufacturing industry in the UK is facing a severe shortage of skilled machinists, also due to Brexit and the increasing disinterest of young people in learning making skills. Within this context, the paper reports on a project aimed to develop and test a collaborative training framework for social enterprises aimed to upskill marginalised South Asian women and support their empowerment within the fashion and textile industry. To meet this aim, semi-structured interviews, a series of co-creation workshops, and a focus group were conducted as part of participatory action research conducted in the UK. Findings from the primary and secondary research validated the need for collaborative training programmes, while the delivery of the co-creation workshops aided in the development of a guidebook. In discussing the framework and how it can be adopted and adapted by social entrepreneurs who want to upskill marginalised South Asian women in the fashion and textile industry, the paper highlights the original contribution of the research to the theory and practice of social entrepreneurship and outlines recommendations for further work.
Copyright (c) 2023 Neha Mathew, Francesco Mazzarella https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
The designer as an agent for promoting sustainability in the creative industries in Zimbabwe
The scope of this study was to engage the designer to evaluate the extent to which they act as agents of change towards achieving a greener world as their products have a significant bearing on how the communities consume products or services. The study provided an audit of how the three key pillars of sustainability namely economic, environmental, and social are promoted in the creative industries in Zimbabwe. Five distinct areas in the creative industries were selected for this study and these were fashion design, interior design, product design, graphic design, and multimedia design. A total of five in-depth interviews were conducted in each sector where the design agent was purposively sampled from. The informants were purposefully sampled using their present and past creative works as a key indicator for one to provide a meaningful contribution to the study. A huge gap with regards to knowledge on sustainability issues was identified amongst designers across the sectors though opportunities for improvement were also identified. The study highlights that there is a need to improve sustainability education as a concept for both designers and consumers of products or services. The study concluded that creative industries in developing economies like Zimbabwe have significant potential to contribute towards the achievement of –Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Copyright (c) 2023 Walter Chipambwa, Kelvin Dekesa, Josiline Mabuto https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Reviewer Acknowledgements for Discern: International Journal of Design for Social Change, Sustainable Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Vol. 4, No. 1
Copyright (c) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Book review: Design for social innovation: Case studies from around the world
Featuring 45 case studies from 6 continents, this book is a snapshot of design for social innovation. An extensive introduction from the editors considers the boundaries and difficulties in projects based on design for social innovation: “With countless pilot projects, startups, and labs that have come and gone, the question is how the sustainability of design for social innovation practices can be enhanced. If that’s a question you care about, this book is for you”, they note.
Copyright (c) 2023 Claire Pillar https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
For many people, digital working became a reality, especially through on-the-job training during the pandemic. Students were home-schooled, and companies and offices operated in distance working. Digital skills became a key determinant in the employability of young people and dealing with these new digital job realities is assumed by potential employers. Millions of jobs requiring digital skills already exist and more will be created in the coming decade. The demand for digital skills in the workplace has never been greater. However, unemployed (young) people, school leavers in the transition to work, not embedded in a supportive institutional framework, widely missed this capacity-building opportunity. The target group is youth not in employment, education, or training (NEET), as well as other young people at risk of marginalization. This project aims to help job-seeking young people adapt to the “new normal” after COVID-19 by improving their digital skills.
Copyright (c) 2023 Eirini Papageorgiou https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Practices: Alternative social innovations in a rentier
The work discusses another variant, place-making practices, of social innovation processes in a rentier state. We aim to document alternative processes that conceptualize different forms of participation and human agency. We want to provide a different discourse where it prevails in individuals’ representations of their complex system of symbols, rules, and codifications of living in the city. Thus, we provide a theoretical framework of the city under capitalism to introduce place, space, and practice later. We introduce Wachsmuth’s (2014) postulation of the city as a “category of practice” to document one representation of urban processes via alternative visualizations in the Emirate of Sharjah. We use a case study approach to record the complexity of happenings in place-making and its relation to social innovation processes. Results exhibit that social innovations and place-making /practices processes encompass collective and collaborative actions of a specific social group toward satisfying a social need. However, the latter differs in the intentions, actions, and outcomes, as individuals concentrate on intervening places to deal with their longing for home while creating a sense of belonging through a series of rituals in an urban context. This work provides an opportunity to advance the understanding of social innovations in other contexts while offering frameworks that honor immigrants’ culture and social realm and thus bring into being other worlds. Thus, we require epistemological approaches, theoretical frameworks, and dialectic character that offer an alternative to prevent exclusionary conceptualizations of participation.
Copyright (c) 2023 Beatriz Itzel Cruz Megchun https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0