Changing behavior of the systems we ’ re in : Designing for transitions in Environment , Economy , and Democracy Working paper

Emerging approaches to designing for societal transitions towards more sustainable futures (e.g. Irwin et al, 2016; Mulder & Loorbach, 2016) involve a methodological commitment to mapping and engaging with complex sociotechnical systems—the value of a systemic design approach is being recognized, from the supraindividuality of social practice theory (Kuijer et al, 2013) to considerations of systems such as food (Barbero, 2015) and even business models (Upward & Jones, 2015). However, much work on systems mapping focuses mainly on representations of actors and relations, when just as important when considering transition is the dynamic nature of the relationships involved, and how to intervene within those relations.