Pollinating and connenting: mapping design-driven practices for inclusive and sustainable societal transformation

The paper presents a mapping activity carried out in 2023, by a team of researchers from RISE Research institutes of Sweden and the Eindhoven University of Technology - on an assignment of the EIT Culture & Creativity (EIT CC). The aim of the mapping was to map design-driven Practices for Inclusive and Sustainable Societal Transformation.It stems from the need, voiced by professionals in the field coming from a variety of different organisations, of better understanding how to face complex systemic challenges in an inclusive and collaborative way, leveraging on design and creative practices.Building on the team’s design expertise rooted in Design for Transforming Practices’ body of knowledge, the mapping investigates the playfield of achieving a sustainable societal transformation, carving out what design practices are currently invited in it and how are they enacted through multi- and inter- disciplinary partnerships.Given the complexity of the playfield, the mapping takes an iterative, participatory, and reflective stance making space for participants’ plurality of approaches and questions, fostering collective resonance. As a result, the mapping portrays a multi-layered landscape, exploring the values and qualities behind organisational and collaborative models that enable conditions for ecosystemic practices of transformation leveraging on culture and creativity to unfold.This contributed to the co-formulation of a set of recommendations for and from the sector. Recommendations address partners of the EIT CC, stakeholders working with Cultural and Creative sector industries (CCSIs), as well as societal actors engaged in mission-driven innovation. It provides them with insights contributing to accessing available strategic design and creative expertise.