Practice Research in Social Design: Definitions Contexts Futures. Case Study #3, Camden Family Changemakers

Overview
Camden Family Changemakers was a co-design project carried out in 2021 between Camden Council’s family services team, parents and family members residing in Camden, London College of Communication (LCC) MA Service Design and MA Data Visualisation students, two MA Service Design alumni, five academic staff members, the Service Futures Lab at LCC and the UAL’s Public Collaboration Lab. The partners came together to create a design vision for “good help” for families after the COVID-19 pandemic. As well as supporting the Council’s aims around its Early Help Service, and co-developing policies and services, the project produced a number of insights around how to do co-design in a non-extractive way, and the potential of visual and material methods both in policy and on the front line of council services.

Case study methodology
This case study series is intended to represent the diversity of design practice research in social and sustainable design across UAL, and to articulate its contribution to both real-world challenges and academic research. It uses the conceptualisation of practice research in design, developed in 'Practice research in design: Towards a novel definition’.1 Each case study is based upon a semi- structured interview with a researcher, as well as reviewing related literature and documentation from the project.