Skip to main content

Professorship Design and Social Innovation (SI–LAB)

The Professorship in Design & Social Innovation (also SI-LAB) focuses on addressing social innovation within the context of transition challenges. It views social innovation as a crucial component for the development of technological solutions in these scenarios, yet acknowledges a current gap in understanding its significance and implementation. To bridge this gap, the professorship collaborates with institutional partners such as municipalities, provinces, and governmental bodies like Rijkswaterstaat. Together, they explore the challenges these entities face and offer expertise in participatory design strategies.

The lab's researchers bring diverse expertise across various disciplines, including cartographic methods, participatory design, social sciences, archival research, GIS, and geo-technology.

PROJECTS

The lab is involved in projects that lie at the intersection of research-education, education-society, and society-research (see Figure 1). Each circle represents a project. The size of the circle indicates the duration of the project, the grayscale shading reflects the phase of the project (dark gray for completed projects, medium gray for ongoing projects, and light gray for preliminary projects), and the colored circles around the dot reflect the dimensions of the project (purple: institutional, yellow: regional, blue: interregional). The names of the organizations we collaborate with on the project are associated with each circle. Last updated in January 2025.

PROJECTS IN THE RESEARCH-EDUCATION NEXUS

(running 2024-2025)

PROJECTS IN THE SOCIETY-RESEARCH NEXUS

(running September 2023 - January 2025)
March 2025

PROJECTS IN THE EDUCATION-SOCIETY NEXUS

(finished, Sep 2023 - January 2024)
(running, Jun 2024 - October 2025)
(running, DAE Education: 4th year BA Programme)

EXPLANATION OF THE AXES AND DIMENSIONS

250204

Axes:

  1. Research-Education: The projects aim to bridge the gap between theoretical research and practical applications in educational institutions, promoting dynamic exchanges that ensure research informs education and vice versa.
  2. Education-Society: This intersection focuses on leveraging education as a catalyst for social change, with initiatives that promote social innovation through community engagement and participation.
  3. Society-Research: The projects emphasise investigating societal issues through empirical methods such as ethnography and GIS cartography within design research, where societal challenges shape the research questions, and the research outcomes contribute to understanding these challenges.

Dimensions:

  1. Institutional: These projects address social issues within specific organizations, focusing on internal policy-making, diversity initiatives, and training to promote ethical and inclusive practices.
  2. Regional: These projects utilize participatory approaches, collaborating with local stakeholders and organizations to tackle regional inequalities and social issues.
  3. Interregional: These are projects that address social issues that cross regional or national boundaries. They employ comparative analyses and transnational collaborations to tackle shared challenges such as water scarcity or nuisance.

By strategically positioning projects along these axes, the chair demonstrates a holistic approach to social innovation that is responsive to diverse perspectives, scales, and contexts.

OUR PUBLICATIONS

Neef, R., Bueno de Mesquita, N., Leenderste, W., & Boeijen, N. (2024, June). Balancing institutional and participatory space in the management of water imbalance: A dual institutional and participatory design perspective. Paper presented at the WETsus Economy for the Common Good International Conference, Leeuwarden, Fryslân, The Netherlands. https://www.wetsus.nl/app/uploads/2024/08/ECGIC-2024_Papers-Day-1.pdf

Bueno de Mesquita, N. (2024). Mapping als Gestaltungsstrategie: Forschung und transformative Produktion miteinander verweben. In E. Krasny, B, Büscher & L. Ortman (Eds.), Porös-Werden: Geteilte Räume, urbane Dramaturgien, performatives Kuratieren (pp. 211-221). Wien: Tuira & Kant. (Free acces via https://www.turia.at/titel/poroes.php)

Bueno de Mesquita, N. (2022). Manifesto for a Design Research framework. Design Academy Eindhoven.

Bueno de Mesquita, N. (2022). Digital Performative Mapping [Doctoral dissertation, KU Leuven/LUCA School of Arts]. KU Leuven Research Repository

Bueno de Mesquita, N., Cila, N., Groen, M., & Meys, W. (2018). Socio-technical Systems for Citizen Empowerment: How to Mediate Between Different Expectations and Levels of Participation in the Design of Civic Apps. International Journal of Electronic Governance, 10(2), 172-195.

Golchehr, S. & Bueno de Mesquita, N. (2018). Data-driven Design for Civic Participation. In O. Devisch, L. Huybrechts & R. De Ridder (Eds.), Participatory Design Theory (pp. 56-70). Oxon: Routledge.

Bueno de Mesquita, N. & Hamers, D. (2017). Mapping Invisibility, RTD Conference, 27, 423-437

Hamers, D. Bueno de Mesquita, N. Vaneycken, A., & Schoffelen, J. (Eds.). (2017). Trading Places: Practices of Public Participation in Art and Design Research. Barcelona, Spain: dpr-Barcelona

Golchehr, S. & Bueno de Mesquita, N. (2015, May 21-22). Introducing Digital Methods For On-going Engagement for Design in Public Space: How Mining and Mapping Social Media Data Can Help Inform Spatial Designers About a Local Context. [Paper presentation]. Design, Social Media and Technology to Foster Civic Self-Organisation Conference, Hasselt, Belgium.

MEET THE TEAM

Research Coordination SI–LAB
Tutor of Focus Module Cartographic Explorations, Research Associate SI-LAB
Tutor and Supervisor Focus Module Cartographic Explorations
Research Associate SI–LAB
Research Associate SI–LAB

FORMER TEAM MEMBERS

Neeltje ten Westendend (Former Tutor of Focus Module Cartographic Explorations Sep 2023 - Feb 2024)

Lucas Zoutendijk (Former Research Associate in GO-CAWH Project. SI–LAB: Sep 2023 - Feb 2024)

Olga Korosteleva (Former Research Associate in Colonies of Benevolence Project. SI–LAB: Jun 2024 - Jan 2025)

Anne Vader (Former Research Associate in GO-CAWH Project. SI–LAB: Sep 2024 - Jan 2025)

Keywords

  • Research

GET IN TOUCH

Do you have questions or want to inquire about a possible collaboration? Then reach out to us via the coordinator of the Lab, Toni Wagner under toni.wagner@designacademy.nl (We do not offer PhD positions at the moment)