Uncovering the pace tensions in systemic design for social innovation

1. Infrastructuring for social innovation
inspired by social insects
A research through design method for
understanding the nature of social biomimicry
Sojung Kim, Joon Sang Baek
Department of Human Environment and Design,
College of Human Ecology,
Yonsei University, South Korea

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Infrastructuring for social innovation:
Designing technical systems to induce “collaborative behaviors”
for social innovation in social system
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Introduction
Background
Infrastructure
• Connects diverse stakeholders
• Arranges time and resources for group work
Collaboration for social innovation
Designed for specific purposes
Evolve depending on the external
environment and technical systems
Social
system
Technical
system
Inspirations from
collaborative animals

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Introduction
Social biomimicry
Attempts to apply natural principles to human societies
Application of of nature to
analysing & understanding human society
solving problems in human society
general principles
specific phenomena
• Previous studies
• Research gap
- Theoretical, forward-looking, speculative
- Lack of empirical studies and methodology development including critical analysis

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Q1. How does the characteristics of design object (infrastructure for social
innovation) influence the practical ap-plication of social biomimicry?
Q2. What are the designers’ challenges in social biomimicry practice?
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Introduction
Research Questions

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Features of nature
Sustainability / Adaptability / Collaboration / Mutualism / Networking
Literature Review
Biomimicry for social innovation
Social innovation (Murray et al., 2010)
New ideas that simultaneously meet social needs and create new social relationships or collaborations
Involvement of
diverse stakeholders
(Ceschin and Gaziulusoy, 2016)
New leadership
and management
(Sørensen and Torfing, 2014)
Network expansion
(Murray et al., 2010)
Design goals
Biomimicry methodology for social innovation
introduces inspirational phenomena and natural principles without validation

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• Social construct with open, dynamic, and heterogeneous structures for participation (Karasti, 2014)
• Long-term commitment and open-ended structural designs
without a predefined goal or fixed timeline (Hillgren et al., 2011)
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Relational
• Interrelationship among actors, their activities,
and technologies supporting them
• Linkage to external tools and other infrastructures
Evolutionary
• Flexibility towards emergent user and social needs
• Evolutionary and distributed process
Literature Review
Infrastructure for Social Innovation

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• A research approach that employs methods and processes from design practice
as a legitimate method of inquiry (Zimmerman et al., 2010)
• Observation of design practice from the first-person account (Yang et al., 2019)
• Research through design process
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Literature Review
Research through Design
Knowledge elicitation
(Data collection)
Interpretation of knowledge
(Data analysis)
Structuring of knowledge
(Modelling)

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Outline of social biomimicry project
Method

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Social biomimicry project
Method

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Social biomimicry project
Method

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Social biomimicry project
Method

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Social biomimicry project
Method

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Method
Data Collection & Analysis
Data collection
• Documentation by researcher
• Platform design result
• Posts and logs by participants (platform, SNS)
• Interviews (4 project managers, 8 participants)
Data analysis
• Codes and themes
• Thematic map

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Results
Theme A: Framework design

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Results
Theme B: Problems in providing values

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Results
Theme C: Similarities and differences between the natural model and practice

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Results
Theme D: Procedural aspects of the natural model

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Relational
▶ Disregard of external environment
• Influence of external policies and stakeholders on
operation of platform and projects
Evolutionary
▶ Disregard of procedural aspect
• Appropriate strategies according to
the growth of platform
Discussion
The traits of infrastructuring and social biomimicry practice

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Discussion
Challenges in social biomimicry

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Conclusion
Summary
• Limited scope for covering relational and evolutionary aspects of infrastructuring
• Methodologies must support designers in addressing the limitations of the scope of social biomimicry itself
Limitation
• A single case and an RtD approach  difficulty in generalization
Contribution
• A pioneering attempt to gain insight into social biomimicry traits through empirical research
Future work
• Further studies on social biomimicry practice
• Methodology development

21. Thank you