Some Theories of Change behind and within transition designing

Abstract

Designers facilitate change by focusing on material interventions that help redirect everyday practices. Design is often a missing component from Theories of Change. Designing is often highly pragmatic, effecting change without explicit Theories of Change. This chapter explains design-oriented Theories of Change, how designers are participating in wider systems-level change by incorporating Theories of Change into their practice. The focus of the chapter is Transition Designing, which deploys Theories of Change from the Multi-Level Perspective on Socio-technical Regime Change from Transition Management. The designerly aspect of Transition Design revives Vision-led designing, with rich pictures of preferable futures being used to guide current design interventions through a process of backcasting. This chapter describes efforts to bring Transition Design approaches to formal planning processes around the move from a centralized, one-way electricity system to a distributed, two-way electricity system in Australia.