Last Friday I attended a dialogue at Kennisland between their research project ‘The Wicked Series‘ in collaboration with Hivos and ‘Social Design for Wicked Problems‘ (SDFWP) initiated by Het Nieuwe Instituut, Twijnstra Gudde en Tabo Goudswaard. The Wicked Series organized by Kennisland and Hivos spanned three evenings in which 40 participants were invited to unravel -in collaboration with relevant (experience) experts- the (un)logic of a series of wicked social issues. SDFWP involves a research project in which design teams work on three different topics, one for ING/NN, a (Dutch) bank/ insurance company, one for the Municipality of Amsterdam and another one introduced by the designers themselves. SDFWP I observed from a distance since it kicked of with an ‘expert meeting’ at the conference WhatDesignCanDo 2013 in Amsterdam. In the Wicked series I attended as a participant in 2013.
What these projects share is their intention to deal with/unravel the complexity of (global) social issues. What fundamentally sets them apart is the way they both deal with context, a key-factor in ‘wicked’ issues. (more…)
AND WE WON! And got started! Check out our projectblog

During an Open Space session initiated by The Learning Lab l was invited to participate as space holder/facilitator. Open Space Technology in short is a way of organizing self-managed meetings. It took place at a school in Roosendaal (NL) which is about to face a huge reorganization. Commitment to change/innovation was high.
All stakeholders of the school (teachers, students, parents, local government, companies) participated in the session which was meant to generate the ‘collective intelligence’ of the group, thereby offering a wide scope at possible innovative solutions for the school and all its stakeholders for a new future.
What made it extra challenging (more…)
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Tagged design, design-thinking, social-design.
During the Social Innovation Safari organized by Kennisland/ Knowledgeland (KL) multidisciplinary teams worked on a variety of cases by different private and public organisations in the Amsterdam area. One of those cases and the outcomes is highlighted below.
Ijburg, being one of Amsterdam’s recently developed areas experienced a bumpy expansion. The administration of the area is quite complex, different private and public bodies being stakeholders, and also the community is shaped by a bright collage of commuters, young families, elderly, teenagers, immigrants, tourists and business and social, private and public housing. Over the years this lead to several complexities, like:
– an increase in so called ‘mallification’ and decrease in small shops
– fragmented social cohesion
– a shortage of public provisions (because of a delay in the development of Ijburg due to economic circumstances)
– feelings of unsafety
The Safari team dealing with this case decided, after extensive fieldwork and interviews (more…)
For this event organised by Kennisland, Who cares? turned the venue (Studio K, Amsterdam) into a Knowledgeland.