Hi Gunnar,
You pose several important questions. The answers are not easy and the possibilities for answering are constrained by the status of the field. Although you don't challenge me to answer your questions, I will provide some tentative points.
The concept of social design is evidently not developed and there are numerous interpretation. Actually, I dare to say the same about the concept of design. This is the foundation for all confusions. We interpret design differently, then we interpret differently many statements about design.
So, your first question is how learning by doing works for social design. In order to answer it, I have to define social design first. Let's say, it is about shaping social morphology. Then the question becomes what is social morphology, and then... and so on. At this time, let's keep it an open question. Anyway. Imagine a project on reducing crime in a particular neighborhood. This has to deal with social morphology first. Forget about defensible spaces and architectural means. Crime is a social phenomenon, a product of social entities and the processes that take place in them. Let's apply to this project a typical design process template with all questions, structure, and organization that come from a possible general theory of design. For more details, I will need some time. Sorry for this brief illustration. A different approach to this question: Let's see how people do that in the field of program planning. (I should have mentioned it in my previous post.) Program planning is par excellence a social design field, just like service design. Those people over there don't perceive themselves as designers, which is not a problem for me. The planning and design approach (Nadler) can be seen as one general attitude and a way of thinking. We can just as well call their field "program design." And by the way, we came to another field, curriculum design which is also social design, if we look beyond education and inscribe it in a larger framework. Of course, when we do program design, at a particular phase of the project, we have to plan for resources. At this point the project diversifies regarding different morphologies and the material designers have to kick in. Actually, this is how some urban planning practices work. If we have a project in community development (another social design area) we will work similarly. There are US government grants for community development, and many of them are in the neighborhood of several million dollars. The biggest portion of these money is not for social design, but usually for designing and building some facility that is key for that neighborhood. And because the largest chunk of money is for materials structures, the whole process might be taken over by material designers. But this is another topic as well.
I already mentioned that the concept of design is not well defined and articulated. This poses a number of conundrums. I am ready to articulate design briefing/programming and evaluation as allied professions, despite of the reaction of all designers across the board. The knowledge and skills for briefing and evaluating are different from the core design skills (for shaping morphology). This can be a different topic because I expect no one with agree with me. The immediate reaction will be how is it possible to separate evaluation from design when designers will not be able to evaluate their every move by themselves. Again, this is a different question and it will need its own arena for discussion. And actually, there are solutions, although only theoretical, at this point of time.
Now about the biologist. When you talk about a biologist selling insurance, I will reframe the example. In that case, I would suggest an example with a biologist who is not focused on understanding how cells work, but uses all available information to produce new kind of specialized cells. That is the design position for a biologist. Unfortunately, biologists who work on biological weapons are bio designers. We can think about better and more cheerful examples.
When we mention (insurance) salesmanship, we talk about a profession/occupation. In that sense, professions are very different from sciences regarding knowledge production and use, as well as necessary skills and teaching practices. Professions are systems of activities; they are about doing things, and we need to approach professional education through the lens of "learning by doing" rather than the conventional approaches for professional reproduction of scientists.
Best wishes,
Lubomir
-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Gunnar Swanson
Sent: Friday, July 03, 2015 2:22 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Expertise in Design and the Risk Backlash for Gaps in Knowledge
Although I am quoting Lubomir, my confusion is more general.
> On Jul 3, 2015, at 12:23 PM, Lubomir Savov Popov <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Design is learned only by doing. It is a skill, and like all skills need to be practiced in order to be learned. Learning by doing (in the studio).
I understand how this happens in fashion design or product design. Students make something then test it in some manner then make something again. How does that work for social design or any of the big picture design modes people have been talking about here?
> an architect who works in capital planning/managing of investment projects is not on a design job position. An architect who is a code compliance inspector is not on a design job position. In that profession, being on a non-design job is an exception from the rule/practice.
Someone whose educational background is biology but she sells life insurance might be considered an insurance salesman rather than a biologist. How does that affect our beliefs about biology?
> We still haven't seen the real social designers.
I’m not clear what a real social designer is (and whether we should want any.)
Gunnar
Gunnar Swanson
East Carolina University
graphic design program
http://www.ecu.edu/cs-cfac/soad/graphic/index.cfm
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