Design Thinking & Social Construction
A practical guide to innovation in Research.
“When adopting a design attitude within the social construction framework, a powerful mix for creativity and innovation in research is created.”
The book integrates central aspects of Design Thinking and Social Construction into the research process
The Constructionist-Design Research Framework
The Constructionist-Design Research Framework guides you through the research process of 4 Phases, offering creative design tools combined with the philosophical ideas of meaning making, co-creation, and dialogue. You can use them following the 4 Phases that we outline, or you can choose to use the resources in different ways and also for different research or intervention purposes.
The book is a practical guide to creative and innovative inquiry: It challenges the dominant discourse of research and knowledge production. We want to inspire professionals to see that knowledge is not something only produced in laboratories or academic institutions. We want to encourage decolonization of research, embracing knowledge as a co-construction of all sorts of people in their interactions and not just the work of elite academics. Every one of us participates in a continuous process of meaning making and knowledge production as we engage with others and our environment.
Authors
Celiane Camargo - Borges
I am an intercultural or multi-cultural person. I was born and raised Brazilian, moved as a young adult to England to learn the language and from there, in my typical mode of curiosity, I discovered a world outside of Brazil and have never stopped moving and exploring – after England, my next step was to the USA for my PhD and then on to Taiwan, Singapore and finally to The Netherlands.
Currently, I am a Lecturer and Researcher at Breda University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands; a Ph.D. supervisor at Canterbury Christ Church University, England; a Faculty and member of the Taos Institute Board of Directors, USA; I am also the founder of Designing Conversations (designingconversations.us) consulting on dialogue processes and Constructionist – Design Research. I am author of several articles and contributor to a variety of Handbooks such as The Sage Handbook of Social Constructionist Practice (Sage Publications); The Handbook of Arts-Based Research (Guilford Press); and The Handbook for Creative Futures (Taylor & Francis/Routledge).
Sheila McNamee
Professor Emerita of Communication at the University of New Hampshire and co-founder and Vice President of the Taos Institute (taosinstitute.net). My work is focused on dialogic transformation within a variety of social and institutional contexts including psychotherapy, education, healthcare, organizations, and communities. I am an author of several books and articles, including Practicing Therapy as Social Construction (with E. Rasera & P. Martins, Sage Publications), Research and Social Change: A Relational Constructionist Approach (with D. M. Hosking, Routledge), Relational Responsibility: Resources for Sustainable Dialogue (with K. Gergen, Sage), and Education as Social Construction: Contributions to Theory, Research, and Practice (co-edited with T. Dragonas, K. Gergen, E. Tseliou, Taos WorldShare). I have written extensively about alternative visions of social research.
