Introduction
It is an era of extreme fantasy and conceit. We indulge in the convenience brought by technology, enjoy the rapid flow of information and freedom of expression, but it also brings many problems. With the gradual scarcity of resources, people feel the pressure from nature and are affected by future trends, imagining future scenarios, and affecting their lifestyles. Some people strive towards hedonism, emphasizing familiarity and comfort, and seeking relaxation and escape from consumer life; the other part values exploration and responsibility, hoping to take action with an evident and anxious attitude in a restrained and progressive way(Weinberger, Zavisca and Silva, 2017).
Due to the impact of climate change, in addition to natural disasters, increased temperatures, the spread of diseases, and the space of malnutrition have become more and more related to human well-being(Clayton, 2020). Southwark Council is determined to change the climate issue, achieve carbon neutrality by 2030, and look for possible solutions from transportation, energy, biodiversity and consumption.
As the last piece of the puzzle for the MA team to learn, Design Future hopes that we will place ourselves in the Southwark of the future, expand based on increasingly severe environmental problems, compare with the existing ones, and introduce the people thinking process. My teammates and I researched consumption, hoping that people from different industries can better express their reflections on the future and participate in discussions to break the deadlock on environmental issues through the power of design.
A shift in methodology
Our focus has been more on identifying problems and solving them in our previous design experience. The tasks at each stage of the design were clarified by zoom in and zoom out the subject matter. The benefit of this approach is that it helps us identify possibilities from the current situation and produce solutions that we can use in the present.
The methodology of this unit is a little different in that. We need to start with the design itself to stimulate discussion and thought. It was a massive shift in thinking, as my design education up until this point had been very outcome-oriented, which meant that our design outputs had to be of practical use. But speculative design is not about exploring a substantive outcome but about designing objects that prompt people to express their thoughts and positions or simply interactive responses between people and things. In other words, we study people by way of design, using design to open up the conversation. And in the process, we need to complete the design before we can formulate our research questions and hypotheses. Creating prototypes as a knowledge generator, using the insights in it will help us discover more possibilities.(Koskinen et al., 2013)
Horizon scanning
Consumption patterns
We often refer to consumption behaviour as defined by Southwark Council, the things we buy, use, eat and wear. However, with the high level of development in some countries, simple use-based consumption is no longer sufficient to meet people’s spiritual needs.
Research has revealed that consumption in the market is no longer limited to tangible objects, but intangible information has also become part of the consumption pattern. In addition to this, there has been a considerable shift in consumption patterns. Globalisation has made products from all over the world readily available. People are no longer limited to local resources but choose the best value for money through price comparisons.
The shift in consumption paths and channels reveals a dramatic change in people’s consumption behaviour patterns. However, the difference itself is usually a complex evolutionary process rather than a defining moment (Hereward, 2020). For the most part, the majority of people are increasingly indulging in the mental model of just-in-time enjoyment brought about by convenience. It means that now that consumption patterns have become more complex, it may be difficult for us to stop the trend on this issue.
As service designers, we cannot reverse the entire consumption pattern. Still, we can only start with the simplest and discrete behaviours that enhance the individual’s sense of conviction and subconsciously introduce sustainability into the lives of the inhabitants (Hereward, 2020). It means that the power of the individual is not enough to accomplish a paradigm shift but that the community and the council need to be brought into the action and discussion. Through the power of movement, people’s thoughts and behaviours are changed, and awareness of climate issues is built.
Climate justice
Twenty years ago, the focus on sustainability was more on the environment than on the climate. Sustainability was seen only as an obligation for the well-being of future generations, as a concept that filled a gap in traditional ethical or economic theory. Today, however, sustainability has become a pressing trend that concerns every one of us (Partridge, 2004). Hurricane Katrina has led to a shift in perspective from the environment to the climate (Schlosberg and Collins, 2014). More and more people are becoming aware of the enormous impact of everyday actions on the climate. But climate issues reflect justice issues more acutely than environmental justice, and forced emissions reductions will only make things more difficult for those vulnerable communities. From the new generation to the GenZ and even the elderly, we must communicate and discuss with residents from different life backgrounds, consider the welfare of each generation and make a just transition to renewable resources.
Sustainable lifestyle
As the extreme climate is known to the public, more and more responsible citizens are considering changing their lifestyles to make them more friendly to the environment. According to data, four-fifths of people have sustainable relationships and have changed their consumption habits: focusing on garbage recycling, reducing plastic use and food waste, etc. However, we can find that convenience, practicality, and price still dominate consumption, but consumers have considered sustainability one factor.
However, sustainable life cannot rely on personal power to bring about complete changes, and not everyone is capable of pursuing such a life. It inevitably needs to be promoted by the government, society, and communities, such as social norms, policy support, and low-carbon communities.
Mentioned in the Goals 12 for sustainable development in 2030 proposed by the United Nations
“We (Countries) commit to making fundamental changes in the way that our societies produce and consume goods and services. Governments, international organizations, the business sector and other non-state actors and individuals must contribute to changing unsustainable consumption and production patterns, including through the mobilization, from all sources, of financial and technical assistance to strengthen developing countries’ scientific, technological and innovative capacities to move towards more sustainable patterns of consumption and production.”
A sustainable lifestyle has become the top priority, and everyone from the country to the individual needs to participate and work hard for it.
The COVID pandemic has rudely changed the way of life of most people, and at the same time, more people have seen the seriousness of the climate problem. This man provides an opportunity for us to reverse our unsustainable lifestyle.
In addition, the growing sharing economy is also exploring sustainable life. Many companies are already trying to profit from reusable products instead of using more resources for production. But the shortcomings of this model have not yet been resolved. When the user does not obtain ownership of the product, some undesirable damage behaviour may occur, which will lead to greater waste of resources. How to ensure that users are still willing to maintain the product even if they only have the right to use it is one issue that needs to be considered.
Of course, sustainable life is not that simple. We still need to consider how to minimize the difficulty of sustainable behaviour, making it the most convenient and effective choice to affect more people in the long run.
Organisational structures
In today’s organisational structures, vertical decision-making still prevails. Regardless of the organisation’s bias, it is the top within the organisation that make the decisions. However, the most fundamental findings often originate at the executive level, where they communicate more directly with the people. When some council environmental departments begin to delve into opportunities for creating change, they often find themselves in a position of encouragement and do not receive formal recognition from others. It was clear that a green team in a marginal place was not helping(Colin Beard and Stephen Rees, 2000). At the same time, this way of structuring significantly hampers external voices. Because this communication is often one-way, it means that the scope is limited.
Therefore, we need to encourage governments and organisations to delegate more power to the executive level in the future we want. Not just inviting residents to discuss new policies, but also empowering to let them make decisions. It means that we need to consider a shift in the way councils currently make decisions, to make the dialogue between residents and communities more equal and to accommodate more voices into the system.
Prototype Concept
With these thoughts in mind and Southwark Council’s ambition to be carbon neutral by 2030, we asked ourselves
What if the council supported green initiatives within the community, which helps people move to a more sustainable lifestyle？
We felt that this would require the council and the community to transform themselves into an organisation with a big picture view and a commitment to lead the fight against climate change. We, therefore, decided to create a new model of Council+Community for 2030. Drawing on the Teal organisation model , we wanted a new model where councils and communities are self-managing, where everyone feels that their ideas are respected; where there is a sense of ownership, where everyone can focus entirely on their growth and contribution; and where there is an ability to evolve and adapt goals to reality.
At the same time, inspired by the Quintuple Helix Model , our team realised that it was not enough to consider the relationship between the council, the community and the residents. Understanding the future of co-creative community cooperation in its many dimensions — natural, social, commercial, political and even educational — helped us imagine possible scenarios and sustainable measures.
Incubation Garden
The Incubation Garden is the prototype under our concept collection, a collaboratively created shared void in which all residents can generate sustainable value. By transforming the Incubation Garden into a hub of food, skills and ideas, the Council, community, business, schools and individuals are prompted to connect. Through words and actions, each individual builds a positive atmosphere, forming new habits, abilities, and ideas that will drive the public to take practical action in the face of the severe climate test and work with multiple parties to make the spaces within the garden work organically.
Garden works with local businesses to establish sustainable business models; works with communities to make cultivated food accessible to all residents; supports sustainable initiatives undertaken by schools to help them implement projects in their communities.
But here are some more questions that we are not sure
1. what would promote the willingness of residents to participate and make their voices heard more often?
2. how to generate an effective dialogue so that each space has the potential to generate new ideas?
3. what can help build a sense of responsibility among the residents that can lead to positive behavioural change?
By showing how the various spaces in the garden function, we hope to open up a dialogue with the residents and community.
Testing
We went to Tabard Growers and John Evelyn Garden and wanted to study future consumer behaviour from the perspective of community workers with who the community, Council and residents connect.
To better show them our Incubation garden prototype, we also brought some products that could be featured in the garden, such as Color Code Gloves . By showing the prototype, we received some positive comments.
“Gardening is a great way to break down barriers and get people involved.”
“I think some of these conversations have to come out of the office.”
“There are limited types of spaces available for community & council dialogue.”
They believe that the role of the garden for the community is not only in Grow food but also in healing the soul through the presence of the garden. Therefore, when residents go to a community garden, most are more friendly and honest, and it is a place that opens up effective dialogue. At the same time, when communication moves from the office to the outdoors, the different positions brought about by the venue disappear, and the conversation between people becomes equal, leading to the development of more inclusive ideas.
They also raised the issue of community nowadays. The asymmetry of information and lack of transparency between residents and the council can undermine residents’ sense of community involvement and responsibility. Most residents do not know what kind of things the council is doing. Even if they have connections, they have little access to effective information, which greatly diminishes the residents’ sense of ownership.
At the same time, they hope that the Council can give them more power to plan and focus more on future long-term plans. The Council is currently trying to connect the community with the garden and people’s food, but this plan is not enough to drive people’s long-term actions.
Final outcome
Based on the feedback from gardens, we believe that the Incubation Garden is not only a space for generating ideas, but also in the context of multi-party cooperation, transforming the garden into a place where ideas can be discussed, developed, and piloted to help residents, businesses, schools, and governments see their sustainable practices and actions.
Regrettably, it could be better.
After the final presentation, our group did not get a lot of feedback. In other words, our prototype did not open up the communication with others very well.
For this reason, a team reflection to discuss the problems and reasons is necessary.
Firstly, we focused too much on the concept of Consumption Council and spent a lot of time going through literature and materials to try and understand the situations and concerns people might face from multiple perspectives. We did not have enough time to test the residents of Southwark. More scenarios need to be represented in this concept, and a single scenario may be difficult to make sense of the concept. We also had to consider specific modes of operation to ensure that we could answer them clearly if people had questions about the prototype. These factors prevent us from producing prototypes quickly and taking a lot of time to discuss the details of the concept. However, as discussed under Methodology Change, the research that has gone before us is a good grounding for us, and our research still has to be based on reality. We should do our research from the design, opening up the conversation earlier rather than dwelling on the concept itself.
Moreover, during the entire process of the project, we rarely received opinions from residents, or the conversation started too late, so that we were too deep in one direction. Still, there was no way to verify our understanding of the future. When the content we design is too fictitious, and far away from the lives of the residents, it is easy for them to lose participation or contact. Our space hopes to explore how to shorten the distance between people to strengthen communication, learning, and change. But these unreal experiences, if there is no strong design display, it is difficult for residents to build a bridge between their perception of the world and this concept, thus losing the opportunity to put forward insights(Auger, 2013). In the end, a lot of our knowledge of residents comes from the residents’ comments provided by Southwark. The lack of authentic conversation makes it difficult for us to understand what is effective.
Then, in testing, we were more about talking than showing. Since we have many non-specific terms in our concept, such as consumer behaviour, decision-making and Grow skill, to name a few, this still leaves us with more language to explain where the term comes from. We created a Newspaper for the imagined future. Perhaps by presenting this Newspaper to others simultaneously, it was easier for us to open up a conversation rather than elaborate on the concept.
Finally, through this project, I have also been thinking about how we, as service designers, can better ask questions to identify potential possibilities and threats. For a long time, I realised that our team’s work had been avoiding some critical but complex issues. For example, we suggested early that the Consumption Council would have a different approach to Decision-making than the current one, which fully incorporates everyone’s input. It has been a difficult task in past research and practice, but it has not prevented us from asking questions and conducting research to explore future decision-making models. However, the team chose to avoid this question and many more afterwards.
Preferable Future?
Back to our original focus on the council, we discuss the future-related films we have watched. The government often reacts with a sense of indifference and callousness, and by extension, the world at large and human relationships. One of my favourite games, Detroit: Become Human, had shown a world where robots were more human than humans. Perhaps we are all aware that the development of society and technology may make human relationships looser. As a result, more and more problems are emerging, such as mental health issues. As designers, we are like engineers who have just found a bug in a program and are ready to improve when another crack has already appeared. Fortunately, we are aware of the problem, so fairness, cooperation and inclusion as a foundation are factors that always need to be considered. We act as a coupling agent to bring people together so that the whole social machine can work in a good direction.
Our work has made me better aware that the future government should be transparent, open and democratic, with participation and dialogue for all, thus increasing confidence in society and trust in the community. But that seems so complicated, doesn’t it? As I repeatedly asked myself, how can I help Southwark meet their carbon neutrality targets? How can we change the consumption behaviour of residents? How can we build a sense of community among the residents? I realised that our mission as service designers is to break down, narrow down, and solve such complex problems. Our role as a guide pulls different people into the conversation and helps reach consensus, enhancing organisational transparency and interpersonal inclusiveness. And in this collaborative and win-win atmosphere, we will turn the future around and head for the “preferable” world.
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