“A systemic perspective, systems thinking and co-design. All three are what we need to face societal challenges of which there are many”, says Professor Societal Impact Design Wina Smeenk and Chair of the Expertisenetwork Systemic Co-design (ESC) which is the organizer of the Amsterdam hub of the RSD-conference. “Co-design is by now a valid research domain and the attention for systemic design is growing. Systemic Co-design, however, is just emerging. The co-design approach enables a wide range of people to make a creative contribution in a societal challenge. And the systemic part makes people look from different perspectives and at different levels. I’m proud that during this worldwide conference ESC is contributing on Systemic Co-Design.”
Wina sees this conference as a huge opportunity to discover, learn and share. “For over a year we’ve been building ESC, a research infrastructure between four universities of applied sciences in The Netherlands. Our goal is to enable our partners to share, combine and develop new knowledge and practices together. For example, our individual professorships couldn’t have organized this conference on their own, but together (with our joint program team) we now make it work. Not just with us as researchers, but also with practice: governments, businesses and education.”
Visitors of the conference get a taste of all sorts of knowledge and projects. Two book presentations offer knowledge, and tools and methods are shared to professionalize Systemic Co-Design even further. “This conference is not only about Systemic Co-Design, it actually is Systemic Co-Design. So be surprised about what our program has to offer. Be critical, meet new people, get inspired. It won’t only profit you, but the whole society!
“Our goal is to enable our partners to share, combine and develop new knowledge and practices together.”