Hi Stephanie and Erik,
The problem is that Rittel and Weber's paper contains many fundamental
mistakes and false conclusions as I've documented elsewhere (e.g. 1). Worse,
design researchers have interpreted Rittel and Weber in ways that have
compounded the problems in the development of design theory since 1972.
Yes, Rittel and Weber's ''Dilemmas' and 'Wicked problems' have been
incredibly influential. The problem is their work has influenced in
unhelpful directions for design research and led to a swathe of unhelpful
design theory that in itself is invalids and falsely justified (often using
Rittel and Weber as a reference).
Worse, it has led to perspectives on design practice and design theory that
has been overly limiting and naïve - especially in areas such as Design
Thinking.
Looking back, I think we will find the benefits of Rittel and Weber's ideas
were limited to only the period immediately after their publication. At that
time, they provided a useful counterpoint to oversimplistic claims that
simple linear models could be applied to everything. With hindsight, Rittel
and Weber also pointed to the need to take into account complex feedback
loops in ways that designers of that time were not trained to perceive. The
same lack of skill with complex feedback loop methodics of many designers
and design researchers is true now also.
Instead, the work of Rittle and Weber became used as a means to justify
even less-skilled approaches (than applying linear models) - mostly via
guessing or 'political manipulation' ('asking around' until all
participants agree on a solution so that everyone who participates shares
the blame - and hence will 'support' the solution)
Some areas of Design Thinking propagate the same problems.
This is a deep rooted problem in the literature and in habits of thinking in
the field.
We can do better. The methods are available and we could train designers and
design researchers in them- so far we haven't and don't.
I feel we will look back on this current time and wonder why the field was
so blind-sided. The simplistic overextension of Rittel and Weber's work
and lack of skill and critical understanding of how to solve wicked problems
are two of the reasons.
1. Love, T (11 Feb 2012) Re: Wicked Problems. JISCMAIL: PhD-design.
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A2=PHD-DESIGN;779793d3.1202
Best wishes,
Terry
---
Dr Terence Love
BA(Hons) PhD(UWA), PGCEd, FDRS, AMIMechE, PMACM, MISI
Director,
Love Services Pty Ltd
PO Box 226, Quinns Rocks
Western Australia 6030
Tel: +61 (0)4 3497 5848
Fax:+61 (0)8 9305 7629
[log in to unmask]
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1. https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A2=PHD-DESIGN;779793d3.1202
-----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 stefanie
di russo
Sent: Tuesday, 11 December 2012 6:18 AM
To: Dr Terence Love
Subject: Re: Design Thinking Readings -- going deeper
Hi Erik,
May i suggest adding Rittel, H & Webber, M 1973, ‘Dilemmas in a general
theory of planning’, Policy Sciences, Vol.4, No.2, pp.155-169, springerlink.
This paper is fundamental for its influence over the nature and definition
of design thinking.
And if you may be interested, i have provided my own interpretation on the
evolution design thinking which is a casual summary of research i have
conducted for my thesis to date
http://ithinkidesign.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/a-brief-history-of-design-thin
king-the-theory-p1/
This of course is a work in progress and i am currently revising my
literature on this topic
Regards,
Stefanie
On Tue, Dec 11, 2012 at 6:50 AM, Erik Stolterman
<[log in to unmask]>wrote:
> Hi list
> I have a new blog post where I make the case that design thinking need
> to go deeper. I propose a list readings that I think would support
> such an effort. I am also looking for more suggestions of books. If
> you find this interesting you can go here
> http://transground.blogspot.com/
>
> Best
> Erik
> *---------------------------------------------------
> Erik Stolterman
> *http://transground.blogspot.com/
> <http://www.organizationaldesigncompetence.com/>
>
>
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--
*Stefanie Di Russo*
PhD Student
Faculty of Design
Swinburne University
*twitter:* @stefdirusso <https://twitter.com/#!/stefdirusso>
*linkedin: public
*profile<http://www.linkedin.com/pub/stefanie-di-russo/35/16/a84>
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