PhD | My Site

PHD RESEARCH

My PhD is part of the bigger project MAPSI and its all about participatory design and social innovations. The goal of my research is to investigate how to support social innovation creation through participatory design with local Third-sector organizations (TSOs) to produce solutions that address their needs. Focused on the design process, my research brings novel aspects to the field of SI research by placing TSOs in

the centre of the PD process as the main beneficiary and

co-designer, underlining the concept of empowerment

and collaboration for social organisations.

As part of my research, I initiated 4 projects: Datashare, Art organisations, Pathfinder, and Joint promotion for museums.

How to co-design social innovation with Third Sector Organizations?

CONTEXT

Participatory design is widely used as a tool to empower various actors of social innovation by involving them in the design process. However, TSOs are rarely involved in the design process as the main participants and beneficiaries of the final solution. Usually, they are invited on the line with other stakeholders to contribute to design for the community. At the same time, they are lacking the capacity to design their own services, so they will benefit from external design support.

Now a bit of definitions...

TSOs are generally defined as “a range of organisations that are neither the private sector nor public sector and may include voluntary and community organisations, charities, social enterprises, cooperatives, associations, self-help groups and community groups” (National Audit Office, 2010)

Social innovations - are “new ideas (products, services and models) that simultaneously meet social needs and create new social relationships or collaborations”. (Murray, 2010)

Participatory design is a constellation of design initiatives aiming at the construction of socio-material assemblies where social innovation can take place (Manzini, 2011)

PARTICIPANTS

I focus my attention on the micro to medium-size TSOs (1-55 employees) operating locally in Dundee, Scotland with the intention to co-design socially innovative concepts with and for them. The choice of relatively small organisations was made, as they are lacking resources to satisfy their own needs, compared to the bigger national and international TSOs, that have more financial support and publicity. These TSOs are typically struggling with financial support and struggle to get grants to own development or simply to pay rent.

Example of TSOs profile

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

How to co-design social innovation with and for social organisations?

Sub questions:

How PD process with TSOs contribute to the SI creation?
What kind of SI solution is most relevant for local TSO?

OBJECTIVES

To develop the design procedure to support Third-sector organizations with SI creation
To investigate what kind of SI solution is most relevant for Third-sector organizations
To explore how the PD process with Third-sector organizations supports two-aspect of SI: (1) Empowerment and capacity to act; (2) collaborative actions and the role of networking

METHODOLOGY

The research is based on four independent projects and utilised the 3-stage Participatory design methodology proposed by Spinuzzi (2005): (1) Initial exploration of work, (2) Discovery and (3) Prototyping. As this approach is quite flexible by its nature, the data collection activities were chosen to suit the purpose of each stage and at the same time to minimise intrusion for participant organisations.

Phases of Participatory design

PROJECTS

Here I will briefly introduce 4 projects, conducted as part of my PhD: Datashare, Art organisations, Pathfinder, and Joint promotion for museums. Each project is independent and utilised all 3 stages of the Participatory design methodology provided above. The First 3 projects (Datashare, Art organisations, Pathfinder) were conducted online, due to pandemic restrictions. The last project Joint promotion for museums is conducted offline.

P2. THIRD SECTOR NETWORK

P2 engaged participants from 7 TSOs that are related to art or provide art workshops to support local communities. The goal was to define what issues exist in the work of art organisations and to explore how can organisations better support communities through art

Even though the discussion on various issues that exist in the work of organisations, during the workshop participants focused attention on the funding issues, as the most intense.

As the outcome, participants created 2 concepts related to the funding problem of art organisations, that I presented in the form of infographics.

Infographic 1 represents the informal network for funders and TSOs. The main goal of the network is to share issues and knowledge, to create collaborations, and get to know funders' needs better. This network is different from existing gatherings and groups as it includes building relationships not only with other organisations but with funders.
Infographic 2 is also related to funding and networking, however, it focuses on a more formal network and includes public, private and third sectors. And the focus of this network will be on supporting sustainability

Infographic 1

Infographic 2

P3. PATHFINDER

This project was aiming to explore how to support the work of organisations that work on Mental health to better address communities’ needs. To do so I have invited 7 locally based TSOs that provide mental health support either in form of counselling or group therapy. During the PD process, participants decided that the biggest issue that impacts their work is outdated information on what's happening in the Third vector in Dundee. It happened that some organisations are providing various services, however, others are not aware of it.

As a result, we have developed a concept of a platform that supports organisations with updated information about current Third sector services.

The goal of the platform would be to support communication for both organisations and the community. Please, check the clickable prototype of the Pathfinder platform

Pathfinder home page

P4. JOINT PROMOTION

In this case study, I gathered local Museums and art galleries (as they are also registered as charitable organisations) to explore how can they support the interest of local communities in Dundee’s cultural heritage. We have explored various factors that affect the attendance of museums/galleries by local people and explored ways to improve attendance.

As a result, I have got two outcomes:

1. Together with participants we have created the concept of museums' Joint Promotion and visualised it in form of an infographic ( see below)

2. Based on the Data analysis and part of the Joint Promotion concept, I have created the prototype of the app with local museums&galleries maps. The goal of this map is to support local citizens and tourists with information about destinations in Dundee and brake down the perception that "everything is located too far".

Infographic of Joint Promotion concept

P1. DATASHARE

This project is all about the reuse of existing data to support the cooperative work of TSOs in a local context. While many Third Sector Organisations collect data about their own services and local communities' needs, this data is rarely reused by the organisation or shared with others, due to a lack of resources and funding. To explore this issue, we have engaged in Participatory Design research with six locally based social organisations from Scotland. As an outcome of this project, the organisations have imagined the concept of the “Datashare” platform. This is a platform that would allow the reusing and sharing of their data by exchanging it widely through the sector and beyond.

Feel free to explore the details of the design process and platform features in the Publication and Case study.

Also, check out the Datashare Case study

Home page of the Datashare platform

OUTCOMES

4 innovative concepts for Third Sector organisations.
Defined design implications for Participatory design with TSOs as the primary beneficiary of innovative solutions. At the same time, I brought the attention of the research community to small TSOs as powerful actors of local changes.
Described how the PD process with TSOs contributes to the two components of SI: Empowerment & capacity to act and Collaborative action & The role of the network.

REFERENCES

Murray, R., Caulier-Grice, J. and Mulgan, G., 2010. The open book of social innovation (Vol. 24). London: Nesta.

Manzini, E. and Rizzo, F., 2011. Small projects/large changes: Participatory design as an open participated process. CoDesign, 7(3-4), pp.199-215.

National Audit Office (2010): ‘What are third sector organisations and their benefits for
commissioners?’. Retrieved February 21, 2022 from https://www.nao.org.uk/successful17

Spinuzzi, C. (2005): ‘The methodology of participatory design’. Technical communication, vol 52, no. 2, pp. 163-174