Creative communities

Framed in the understanding that we are in times of transition, this design study is the reported experience of the participation as a regular member that happens to be a designer in a creative community bringing forward a co-housing of shared ownership. It focuses in the ongoing co-design of the laundry service as a pivotal point, to explore as well other contributions. To date, design work has generated deliverables to support the decision to pilot an scenario of the laundry, and several other contributions that have emerged during the process, mainly focus on the current relationships in the community. It also offers a detailed description and a reflection of the co-design process experienced in first person, as well as some guidelines on the personal posture. Finally, based on this reported experience, opens up the discussion by confirming we are living in times of diffused design, and asking if design could be considered as well as a collective agency of creative change.

El Transition Design es un área emergente en la investigación y práctica del diseño, que pretende afrontar y dar soluciones a los cambios globales de la sociedad actual y futura a partir de criterios de sostenibilidad ambiental, social y económica. Este enfoque participa de la idea de que el diseño se comporta cada vez más como la construcción de escenarios sostenibles en entornos complejos.
En la actualidad las soluciones de diseño deben afrontar problemas complejos (wicked problems), como la contaminación, la pobreza, la pérdida de la biodiversidad, la crisis económica y los problemas de privacidad, por nombrar algunos. Más aún, todos estos problemas están interconectados y dependen de una variedad de sistemas interdependientes, que muestran diversos niveles de escala dentro de las esferas sociales y ambientales.

Em um panorama em que acentuam-se a desigualdade econômica, os prejuízos ao meio ambiente e a exclusão social, grupos de pessoas têm atuado para mudar a realidade que os cerca em busca de modos mais sustentáveis de vida. Tais grupos realizam atividades que promovem inovações sociais e representam possíveis alternativas à lógica dominante de produção, consumo e convívio. No âmbito do design estratégico, entende-se esses grupos de pessoas como ecossistemas criativos, em que diversos atores interagem e produzem ações inovadoras com potencial transformador. Em Porto Alegre, identificamos ecossistemas criativos que realizam processos e práticas de inovação social em termos de gestão de suas iniciativas, de produção, de resistência e de convívio social. São eles: as casas colaborativas, os espaços coletivos de produção, as ocupações urbanas e as moradias compartilhadas. Embora existam características específicas de cada um, eles possuem valores e propósitos convergentes que apontam para uma sociedade mais justa, igualitária, democrática e resiliente. Neste sentido, são iniciativas que colaboram para o alcance dos Objetivos de Desenvolvimento Sustentável elencados pela Organização das Nações Unidas em 2015. O objetivo desta pesquisa é explorar, pela perspectiva do design estratégico, a integração de tais ecossistemas criativos para que, com essa conexão, fortaleçam-se e sejam capazes de se configurar como uma alternativa viável à lógica dominante dos modos de ser e fazer, em especial na cidade de Porto Alegre. Para isso, mapeamos e analisamos suas atividades para que fosse possível propor, a partir de conceitos advindos de Manzini e Morin, uma coalizão de design através de diálogos estratégicos e de encontros colaborativos. Esta pesquisa busca, portanto, contribuir com as discussões sobre design para inovação social e sustentabilidade em um contexto brasileiro.

The purpose of this paper is to outline Instagram’s increasing impact on arts organisations, through providing a platform to increased audience engagement and influence on exhibition programming. This paper provides further research into how Instagram bridges the visitor and gallery relationship whilst facilitating to Stokel- Walker’s (2016) two-way participatory communication methodology whilst exploring how Instagram’s impact on contemporary exhibition programming and curatorial practice facilitates Russo’s (et, al. 2008) many-to-many communication methodology. Through a series of case studies, interviews and research undertook through the documentation of live project titled Lost Generation, this paper provides advanced research on the art gallery and Instagram relationship in order to fulfil a gap within contemporary literature.

As cidades estão em constante transformação e crescimento, onde o ritmo de mudanças sociais, tecnológicas e econômicas tem se acelerado pela globalização. Nesse contexto, mostra-se a necessidade de pensar novas soluções sob a ótica da inovação social considerando a possibilidade de gerar soluções mais sustentáveis, coletivas e sociais.. Diferentes autores reforçam o potencial do design estratégico para criar e gerir essa nova mentalidade, a partir do uso de metodologias interdisciplinares e centrada nas pessoas. Neste contexto, surgem as Comunidades Criativas, que são grupos de pessoas que se reúnem – virtualmente ou fisicamente - para construir novas soluções para o seu próprio cotidiano. As comunidades têm como premissa a construção de soluções para o espaço urbano através de um diálogo mais próximo entre a sociedade, as instituições, a iniciativa privada e o poder público. A partir de uma análise exploratória, espera-se compreender como ação do Design Estratégico, como uma metodologia de inovação social pode contribuir para a motivação de soluções colaborativas na cidade de São Paulo. A pesquisa abrange um estudo de caso sobre o Coletivo
Ocupe & Abrace, comunidade criativa que propõe um novo modelo não institucionalizado e compartilhado de melhorias no bairro Vila Pompeia, na capital paulista. Como resultado, foram identificadas diretrizes projetuais que podem guiar a atuação do designer no âmbito da
cidade.

Palavras-chaves: Design estratégico. Inovação social. Comunidades criativas. Coletivo Ocupe
& Abrace.

Creative communities that arise in a cultural milieu of place-based social relationships are being targeted for cultural economy strategies to revitalize cities in Asia. The dominance of a small number of family owned conglomerates, chaebol, in the economy and politics of South Korea represents an extreme case of the corporat-ization of citymaking that drives cultural economy policies. The experience of the historic district of Insadong, Seoul, illustrates the resulting loss of vernacular heritage, gentrification and commodification of creative community life-spaces under the cultural economy banner. At the same time, democratization and the rise of civil society have provided openings for grassroots organizations to seek to protect and support local cultural spaces as sites for creative engagements in urban life. Recent success of grassroots mobilizations in countering corporatization by electing an activist as mayor of Seoul points to the need to give greater attention to role of the local state in sustaining creative communities.

During the past few years, Human Cities as a project and as a
network, has aspired to come to terms with the gap between the
practice and the theory of urban issues. This online publication is no
exception; it is rooted in actions initiated by the civil society to reclaim public space. It continues its way along academic and professional thoughts about this phenomenon and we hope it will enlighten and empower all kinds of people working with public spaces. It is an attempt to describe, analyse, evaluate and disseminate initiatives started by citizens, in order to foster imagination, creativity, collective experiments and criticism in contemporary cities. Indeed, as the pragmatist philosopher John Dewey put it, we strongly believe that researchers “must accept reality as they found it and try to shape it toward positive social goals, not stand aside in self-righteous isolation.”
This publication shows many aspects and viewpoints of public
spaces. It allows different profiles to meet in the same book and
by this expands the field of discussion, as well as refines the
attitudes towards the subject.

El Transition Design es un área emergente en la investigación y práctica del diseño, que pretende afrontar y dar soluciones a los cambios globales de la sociedad actual y futura a partir de criterios de sostenibilidad ambiental, social y económica. Este enfoque participa de la idea de que el diseño se comporta cada vez más como la construcción de escenarios sostenibles en entornos complejos. En la actualidad las soluciones de diseño deben afrontar problemas complejos (wicked problems), como la contaminación, la pobreza, la pérdida de la biodiversidad, la crisis económica y los problemas de privacidad, por nombrar algunos. Más aún, todos estos problemas están interconectados y dependen de una variedad de sistemas interdependientes, que muestran diversos niveles de escala dentro de las esferas sociales y ambientales.

Çalışmanın temel amacı, kendini örgütleyen sistemleri yaratıcı toplumlar bağlamında bir tasarım problemi olarak tanımlamaktır. Kendini örgütleyen sistemler, yerel bağlamda toplumların ihtiyaçlarının karşılanamadığı durumlarda gözlemlenmektedir. Bir toplumun ihtiyacı olan temel hizmetlerin (ulaşım, eğitim, iletişim, vb.) üst örgütler (devlet, yerel yönetim, sivil toplum kuruluşları, vb.) tarafından karşılanamadığı veya önerilen çözümlerin toplum tarafında karşılık bulamadığı durumlarda yerel topluluklar kendi problemlerini yerel çözümler ile karşılamaktadır. Bu şekilde oluşan sistemlerin üst örgütler tarafından tekrar ele alındığı durumlarda tanımlanabilecek tasarım problemleri oluşmaktadır. Çalışmada bu tasarım problemlerinin oluşumu ve problemlerin çözümlenmesinde tasarımcının rolü sosyal inovasyon yaklaşımları bağlamında tartışılacaktır.

The focus of this research is group interaction aimed at obtaining the “living knowledge” as an educational product. The dynamics of interactive classes on the development of students’ creative activity was structured into three parts as follows: Creation of a “relaxed attention situation”; Creation of a “situation of immersion in the collective creative experience”; Creation of an “active assessment situation”. Thanks to this structure, a scheme of an ideal learning situation at various stages of a class was created. The theory of self-organization in nonequilibrium systems (by Ilya Prigogine) was reconsidered in a new humanitarian context. The principles of self-organization in educational systems were determined through the author’s interactive educational techniques for developing students’ creative activity. The interactive and synergistic approaches were chosen as the key ones and applied as a methodological foundation of this work. The author of this research is the developer of the interactive approach. In this study, the author relied mainly on the theory of self-organization (synergetics) developed by Hermann Haken and Ilya Prigogine.

Social innovation is being considered as an important driver to sustainable society. And grassroots social innovations (creative communities) have been observed and studied as the promising cases of sustainable everyday life. The aim of this ongoing research is to focus the design role in enhancing creative communities in network society, in particular to explore the new opportunities of digital collaborative network as an enabling platform. This paper is an intermediate result of the research based on a design course (Final Synthesis Lab) in the programme of service design at the Politecnico di Milano, where the students developed seven service design concepts. The course is a part of the framework that collects several didactic and research initiatives towards design action within sustainability.
The analysis of the process and results of the course reports that: 1) Service design can play particular roles in promotion of social innovations in terms of local context, complexity of system and process of co-creation; 2) In information and network society, new opportunities can be generated into the collaborative network and digital service as enabling solutions and platforms for social innovation towards sustainability.

The global food system consists of complex processes (i.e., food production, distribution, consumption, and disposal) and contains several environmental, economic, and social sustainability challenges. As a result of the food system's problems, some producers and consumers have taken actions that have resulted in the emergence of alternative food networks. These are primarily bottom-up initiatives led by creative and innovative groups of people collaborating to develop alternative food-system solutions. Different areas of design for sustainability, such as social innovations, creative communities, and product-service-system design, can improve and empower alternative food initiatives through diverse strategies and methods. Also, these communities carry the characteristics of creative communities and involve valuable sources of knowledge and insights for designers. In this regard, this thesis focuses on the Güneşköy initiative that is selected as a case study in the context of the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model. This study aims to examine the significant aspects of the CSA model within the context of the Güneşköy initiative through adopting participatory design and action research approaches to present design for sustainability implications that empower the community to maintain its activities and structure.

The aim of this study was to propose a method for situations in which self-organising systems developed by creative communities are considered by the governing authorities. Self-organising systems form as a result of situations in which the basic needs of communities are inadequately met by the governing authorities. In the framework of this study, minibus transportation, a system organised by community stakeholders, was addressed as a design problem, and a redesign of the system was proposed to the governing authorities of the public transport service of Istanbul. Semi-ethnographic research was used to investigate the case study, and service design tools were used to transform the information obtained into data that was presented to the designers. The methodology consisted of three research stages: recognise the self-organising system, perform research concerning the co-experiences of system stakeholders, and determine design references for the governing authorities. As a result of the study, design references obtained by applying the proposed methodology were converted and evaluated by the designers as design solution proposals.

This paper aims to analyze an urban initiative from the perspective of Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability, with the objective of understanding its interpersonal and institutional relations. The focus of the study is the community garden located at Parque do Martelo (Humaitá), in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The methodology includes a literature review, and a qualitative research study, conducted through participant observation and semi-structured interviews; the results were organized in the form of a Mental Map and a Map of Stakeholders. The results indicate that the community garden may contribute to the promotion of sustainability in the urban context, by means of a system of values and the mutually beneficial articulation of a network of local actors. The importance of interpersonal interactions to sustain the initiative was evidenced.

The main aim of our paper is to highlight the importance of creative and cultural economy (CCE) for Romania on its road towards a knowledge and innovation-based society. In order to express the accelerated importance of CCE for ranking countries performance based on the new competitiveness framework specific to this new type of economy and society, we apply some of the most relevant new benchmarking methodologies such as the Global Creativity Index, European Innovation Scoreboard, Cultural Employment Index and Beyond GDP. The authors identify some of the key drivers of competitiveness specific to these new benchmarking methods. We also include a comparative analysis between these methods. We also compare the different ranking positions of Romania according to these methods, on one hand, and the performance of the top five countries corresponding to each of the benchmarking tool. Special attention had been given to Romania both from a static and dynamic point of view considering its ...

The main aim of our paper is to highlight the importance of creative and cultural economy (CCE) for Romania on its road towards a knowledge and innovation- based society. In order to express the accelerated importance of CCE for ranking countries performance based on the new competitiveness framework specific to this new type of economy and society, we apply some of the most relevant new benchmarking methodologies such as the Global Creativity Index, European Innovation Scoreboard, Cultural Employment Index and Beyond GDP. The authors identify some of the key drivers of competitiveness specific to these new benchmarking methods. We also include a comparative analysis between these methods. We also compare the different ranking positions of Romania according to these methods, on one hand, and the performance of the top five countries corresponding to each of the benchmarking tool. Special attention had been given to Romania both from a static and dynamic point of view considering its...

O consumo colaborativo tem sido reconhecido como uma prática que coopera para a redução do uso de recursos naturais assim como uma forma de reforçar qualidades relacionais como confiança e solidariedade. No Brasil, o consumo colaborativo e o compartilhamento de bens tangíveis e intangíveis ainda não é tão frequente, porém há iniciativas que demonstram grande potencial para a disseminação de tais práticas. O presente artigo indica as casas colaborativas, espaços compartilhados de trabalho em que desenvolvem-se processos colaborativos entre diversos atores, como terrenos férteis para o fomento do consumo colaborativo e compartilhado. E aponta para possíveis oportunidades de atuação do design estratégico para o fomento e disseminação dessa forma de consumo.

Through a vignette of machinima videos, I demonstrate how MMORPG games are used by people to script their own, often marginalised, stories: thus finding a voice.
By uploading their videos to Youtube, and other platforms people have instant publishing rights and exposure for their alternate viewpoints. In these forums, as with any other creative community, there will always be those who belittle the efforts of others, however, more often than not it becomes a ‘place’ where communities are formed and connections made. Where people who share similar stories resonate with what is being told, and where others collaborate and respond with their own stories of marginalisation through text and/or video, hence valuing and corroborating difference.
Unfettered by the linear ‘meatspace’ restraints of time and place, and/or negotiating movement outwards into the ‘real world’,  I argue that this virtual space is as ‘real’ and perhaps for some, more real than the creative communities of face-to-face collaborations. Indeed, after the initial launch of the videos the communities may continue to exist and grow inspiring others for years to come.

It is obviously that all over the world, mostly after 2000, a new approach for urban development and for regional development emerges. We choose Romania taking into account also the idea that it has old tradition in cooperation mostly within the areas near the borders where diversity and multicultural environment can allow more space for diversity management and for tolerance.