Nigel
Your comment on an examiner rejecting a thesis deserves a response.

My work was not blocked because of any lack of "rigour", but because of the
idea of a very rigid format for the work as a whole.

To simplify: my thesis consisted of demonstrations " that you have
rigorously:
- framed,
- conducted and
- communicated
independent research work on a defined topic" ... BUT,

... I did this in virtually every chapter, and I did not have one defined
topic, the enforcing of which [monotopical] will be the death of design
research ... each chapter was written *as if* it could stand on its own as
a mini-thesis (which is something we taught our own students, not as an
objective, but as a test of its viability).

Design today is a non-discipline, a "weak" discipline in the sense that it
lets in "other" knowledge from "other" disciplines: design is
"Undisciplined!" (cf. DRS conference 2008).

Your formula is exactly what I rejected: [1] "framed" i.e. all literature
reviews (on all topics) lumped together; [2] "conducted" i.e. do the
experiments/ practical work; [3] "communicated" i.e. write up your notes /
come to a conclusion.

When your starting point is multiple "topics" or viewpoints from which to
"begin", it is impossible to write a "literature review all-in-one" that
would make any sense ...

My thesis was very much a theoretical one ... a "thought-experiment" if you
will, and my justification (if it can be termed as such) for my approach
was:

[A] “Wicked problems are ill-defined, ambiguous and ... there is often
little consensus about what the problem is, let alone how to resolve it.
Furthermore, wicked problems won't keep still: they are sets of complex,
interacting issues evolving in a dynamic social context” (Ritchey, 2005,
after Horst Rittel). So too should the structure of PhD research evolve
because of interacting issues ...

[B] "... this exploration of the system does not aspire to achieve anything
like a consensus among the system's participants, but “seeks accommodations
among differing worldviews [which] entails finding versions of the
(improved) situation which different people with different worldviews could
nevertheless live with” (Checkland, 2010:130), which is non other than the
dynamics of a collective and negotiated compromise to be found in a
cybernetic design conversation."

[C] My different chapters had to "talk" to each other, and gradually build
up an argument for a version of "design thinking" that could serve as a
"design theory-of-thinking", one that could be useful to many designers, if
they so chose ...

[D] “Rather than speaking with an authorial voice, the text [of the
Zhuangzi, written by the Daoist philosopher Zhuang] is filled with fantasy
conversations between perspectives, including those of millipedes,
convicts, musicians and the wind. A Zhuangzi reflective passage is more
likely to end with a double rhetorical question (“is it … or isn't it … ?”)
than a strong conclusion”.

[E] "Design not only interacts with Territory, but it can also be one of
the latter’s crucial transformation agents, due to the sizable and
significant part it plays in the appreciation of local resources and
contribution to identify and reveal the history, culture and predicates of
communities where several of the products and services it projects are, in
fact, generated. Regardless, Design’s role understandably pivots around the
conceptual innovation and renovation of products, production procedures,
communication strategies and overall services associated with general
goods. Thus, its focus could actually be quite efficient when altering the
perception which distinct agents from a certain value chain may nurture
about the potential of very diverse territories, particularly through its
ability to integrate different scopes of human activity, from agriculture
to tourism, craftsmanship to science, gastronomy to the industry." (this
discussion list: "DESIGNA celebrates its 7th edition in 2018, choosing to
promote the debate and provide visibility to the ongoing research regarding
the connection between Design and Territory, as well as its multiple and
complex dimensions.")

Johann


-- 
Dr. Johann van der Merwe
Independent Design Researcher


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