Dear Fernando, Ken, Don and all,

Good to see the exploration of PhD research aimed at improving design
education.

What has been missing from the discourse is a critical review of the idea of
stigmergy itself.

It is easy to point to the apparent origins of the concept of stigmergy in
entomology and its take up in systems science, AI, computer science,
engineering design and other fields.

That doesn't, however, critique its utility or validity as a concept.

Firstly, stigmergy was originally incorrectly classified as being from
entomology. In fact, it's origins were in ethology - with the ethological
studies in which it was devised  being undertaken in relation to insects.

Second, at first glance it is an incredibly useful concept in relation to
design theory because it provides an overarching concept within which fits
semiotics, meaning making and sensemaking in design theory and practice. 

How so? The crucial dimension  that stigmergy brings is the pathway:

 'action/activity/behaviour' 
--> results in a physical amendment to the local environment  (a
sign/stigma) 
--> results in 'action/activity/behaviour'

(the definition of stigmergy)

Note that  the primary dimension of stigmergy  is of action. This contrasts
with the primary dimension of  semiotics/meaning-making/sense-making  being
understanding, after which it is hoped that by some additional external
process this understanding results in action/behaviours.  So,
semiotics/meaning-making/sense-making are subsumed within stigmergy offering
part of the explanation of it.

Third, the idea of stigmergy is intrinsically limited both in theory and
practice. Strongly implicit in its ethological/entological use ( and by
extension its use in other disciplines) - and unhelpfully not included in
its definition- are two  bounding epistemological and practical constraints.
The first bounding limitation is that the activity that results in the
sign/stigma being left in the environment  is the same kind of activity that
is subsequently affected by the sign/stigma. The second limitation is that
the effect of the sign/stigma is to provide positive reinforcement of that
activity in ways that make it more successful. For example, insects
searching in an environment leaves pheromones that result in improvements to
the outcome of search activities of all. In essence the role of stigmergy in
its traditional formulation is limited to it being a positive feedback
activity.

On the positive side, the  activity-based essence of the concept of
stigmergy offers a great and useful extension to design theory and practice
in terms of extending the analysis of the role of signs (and meaning-making,
sense-making, semiotics and rhetoric).

On the negative side,  the assumption about the same kind of activity before
and after the sign/stigma process, and the requirement that its purpose is
positive improvement  strictly limit the applicability of the concept more
widely.

What is needed to be applicable more widely is a concept similar to
stigmergy  that allows that the sign/stigma may have a variety of positive
or negative effects on activities, and that the activity creating  the sign
may  be different to the activity(ies) that change as a result of the sign.
Think (say ) of  advertising design in which a design activity results in a
sign (the advertisement) that results in the activity of people buying
stuff.

That raises the fourth problem.  The applicability of such a concept is
potentially too wide and too applicable to too many aspects of life.  For
example, every design activity has that structure, as does every activity in
the realms of analysis, research, politics, governance, management, caring,
law, sport.....


In a different direction this also points to a response to  Ken's concern
that concepts from one field should not be used in another. In this case,
that the concept of stigmergy (apparently from entomology)  should not be
used in design education unless fully tested there.

My observation from working in many different disciplines is that the same
concepts (in their abstract form)  are found across all disciplines. The
match is not complete - some disciplines are relatively concept rich and
others are concept sparse. Some disciplines have a concept mix that is
biased in this or that way. This is not surprising as humans are humans and
think the same way regardless of discipline due to biological necessity.

This is easy to test, and its over 30 years since I first did so.  The
method is to write out the structural nature of concepts in mathematical
form - a straightforward activity. Then it is possible to identify a list of
the concept structures used in each discipline.  There are less than 50
concept structures that together cover the main concepts used in most
disciplines.

As a simple example, think of the concept of 'equals'  or 'balance' and how
widely that is used in all disciplines. Similarly, the idea of an activity
resulting in a frame shift into another realm that itself influences an
activity is similarly extensively found across disciplines.

I suggest the problem of using stigmergy in educational research aimed at
improving design education is more that it's a dud over-constrained concept
in its traditional form rather than it being problematic because it is from
another discipline.

Two penneth,

Best wishes,
Terry

==
Dr Terence Love 
FDRS, AMIMechE, PMACM, MISI, MAISA
Director
Design Out Crime & CPTED Centre
Perth, Western Australia
[log in to unmask] 
www.designoutcrime.org 
+61 (0)4 3497 5848
==
ORCID 0000-0002-2436-7566






-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask]
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Fernando Mendes
Sent: Wednesday, 15 March 2017 12:22 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Stigmergy in [Design] Education(?)

Hi List,

Anyone familiar with the term Stigmergy, specifically related to [Design]
Education?

I am a PhD candidate investigating [design] learning patterns in coworking
spaces with evidences of stigmergic phenomena.

Best,
***********************
Fernando Mendes

# IADE / UNIDCOM / IDEAS(R)EVOLUTION Researcher Assistant Professor / Ph.D
Student Laureate Universities

> www.coworklisboa.pt [founder]


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