Open innovation and participation in socially responsive art and design practice

This paper is written in two sections. The first section explains the socially responsive design research practice of the Design Against Crime Research Centre (DACRC)(1) , a UK practice led research initiative that has pioneered participatory models of design over a 12-year period, in an attempt to address issues relating to crime and anti-social behaviour in the UK and internationally. This paper will outline these processes and explain how and why DACRC extended the account of user centred design to embrace abuser information, and draw upon what we have termed the “dark side of creativity” (2) in order to deliver socially responsive design. As well as outlining DACRC’s methodology, about how and why it is important to think abuser as well as user, thus including a diverse cohort of people in the design process, our paper will go further. It will discuss DACRC’s approach in the context of Chesbrough’s model of ‘open innovation’ (3) as a way of articulating the ‘emergent’ nature of the research process and its participatory and generative capacity.

The paper will draw upon a number of social design and social innovation case studies delivered by DACRC and Bikeoff – alongside those from other sources - to illustrate our methodology and also to explain the socially responsive nature of the design focus.

The second section of the paper develops the idea that “socially responsive art and design takes as its primary driver social issues, its main consideration social impact and its main objective social change” (4). It will interrogate what is meant by the idea of socially responsive design, and why this approach offers a different strategy to designers than socially responsible design and has potential to catalyse and embrace a broader and more diverse range of individuals and agencies in design for social change. To conclude the paper we will compare and contrast DACRC’s research process and methods with those of other design agencies and research centres who engage with participatory models of design, and argue that equity in participatory design is served by ‘open’ models of knowledge generation and exploitation.

Notes
1. Gamman, L. and Thorpe, A. (2006) Design Against Crime as Socially Responsive Theory and Practice. In: Design Research Society Conference, Lisbon and Design 2006, Croatia.
2. Cropley, D. (Ed) (2010). The Dark Side of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
3. Chesbrough, H. (2003). Open Innovation. Boston MA: Harvard Business School Press.
4. Gamman, L. and Thorpe, A. (2006) Design Against Crime as Socially Responsive Theory and Practice. In: Design Research Society Conference, Lisbon and Design 2006, Croatia.

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