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Theory of Change was created as a logic planning model to explore and represent a potential change in a way that reflects a complex and systemic understanding of development. Even though it is a familiar tool in the context of community initiatives and philanthropic projects, Theory of Change is under‐applied in design as a problem‐solving practice and underexplored within design research. Design projects that are looking for more comprehensive ways of negotiating change can greatly benefit from it to inform a deep understanding of the dynamics of change. This paper focuses on how a designerly approach to Theory of Change can support participatory visual mapping, thus creating some enabling conditions towards transformation in cities, namely: facilitating more granular communication, suggesting a multifaceted and systemic perspective, helping to navigate complexity by creating shared mental models among stakeholders, fostering thinking through different temporalities, and boosting creativity. The paper will examine a case of an urban transformation project that involves six European cities under regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the human‐centric, systemic and near future‐driven components of Service Design to understand how they can work within a Future Studies and Foresight (FSF) framework. Expanding on empirical evidence gathered from a case study with renters and shareowners in Danish cooperative housing associations (Andelsboligforeningen), the paper looks at how the application of Service Design – within Future Studies and Foresight (FSF, hereafter) – can facilitate a fine‐grained and inclusive rebuilding of our socio‐technical systems in a way that allows end‐users to understand and engage with them more productively. The paper provides a theoretical reflection on the gestalt emerging from bridging Service Design and FSF and how this can inspire and establish strategic viewpoints on how to co‐design complex systems embedded in different socio‐technical dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As design becomes more oriented towards strategy, services and systems, design learning is no longer something apprentices can develop only with masters’ input and critique. Further, the experimentation and reflection commonly occurring inside studio‐based education is insufficient. Real‐world or live projects offer an alternative to learning strategic design skills and approaches such as design research, experience prototyping, visioning, co‐design or systems thinking. In this paper, we report a case study of a graduate studio live project exploring the use of strategic design skills. The findings suggest that students spend more time on and practice synthesis skills for research, reframing and dealing with uncertainty. They also develop skills for modelling and prototyping to address the need to improve communication with stakeholders. On the contrary, they underdevelop skills such as speculation, stakeholder facilitation and implementation viability. While live projects offer benefits, not all strategic design skills are equally used. Instructors’ main role is to coach students and prepare them to interact with the client. Learning evaluation focuses not only on the process but also on the outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the role of strategic ambiguity as a management practice, as used in SENSEable City Lab - a R&D-oriented lab located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA. Although literature has already explored strategic ambiguity in various organizational settings, studies focusing on how academic institutions use strategic ambiguity in the context of R&D are quite sparse. The article aims at filling this gap by reporting on a study conducted by the author across 2011 and 2014 in a R&D-oriented academic lab and reflecting on the potential of strategic ambiguity as an effective dialogic strategy to appreciate differences among internal organization members and with external partners. The article also examines some shortcomings of strategic ambiguity, such as the level of anxiety reported by some members of the lab. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]