Abstract:

This paper aims at understanding if prototyping brings uncertainty in co-creation approaches in design for policy, and if this uncertainty might hinder policymakers’ engagement in the process. To do so, a qualitative research was carried out within the frame of SISCODE, an European Union (EU) funded project focused on “understanding co-creation as a bottom-up and design-driven phenomenon” (SISCODE, 2017), working with a transnational system of ten co-creation laboratories composed by three Fab Labs, three Living Labs and four Science Museums from co-creation networks as the European Network of Living Labs, the international network of Fab Labs and the European Network of Science Centres and Museums.

The need to solve wicked problems and close the gap between policy design and its implementation is demanding public institutions to be more flexible and anticipate to possible and unknown outcomes. (Corsín, 2014) These conditions have enabled new approaches for policy design to emerge, such as design for policy; where design thinking principles and methodologies, as prototyping, offer alternatives to address public challenges.

However, prototyping faces challenges in the policymaking context; one is dealing with the uncertainty of prototyping from a design driven approach, where prototypes are “deliberately fabricated to ‘hang’ in a regime of uncertainty: it is a temporal construction that tolerates uncertainty as a reasonable and feasible outcome.” (Corsín, 2014). This could produce a negative perception within policymakers, hindering their engagement in prototyping processes and preventing it to be periodic and sustainable over time, in a context where, traditionally, uncertainty is meant to be eluded to avoid errors, “Government tends to bury failure or to learn from it only in the sense of veering away from it.” (Schön, 1973) making it difficult to be flexible, learn and anticipate to future scenarios.

This paper seeks to understand if this uncertainty is a barrier for policymakers’ engagement and, if it is, how can this barrier be overcome from the perspective of co-creation labs in the EU.

A matrix to understand prototyping approaches regarding their level of uncertainty was developed and applied to analyze the ten SISCODE’s labs. This analysis was contrasted with the labs through a virtual validation workshop and, based on their level of uncertainty according to the matrix, three laboratories were selected to deepen their cases through interviews: one lab with a high level of uncertainty (Traces, from Paris) , another one with a low level (Krakow Technology Park) and a third one that is closer to the center of the matrix (ThessAHALL, from Thessaloniki).

Finally, a comparative analysis of the labs’ prototyping approach allowed to grasp their navigation through uncertainty, if any, and their way of involving it into their role in design for policy.

References:
[1] Corsín, A. (2014). The prototype: more than many and less than one. Journal of Cultural Economy, pp. 381-398.
[2] Schön, D. (1973). Beyond the stable state. New York: The Norton Library.
[3] SISCODE. (2017). SISCODE co-design for Society in Innovation and Science.

Keywords:

Design for policy, prototying, codesign, piloting.