This is a CTP of initiative: DESIS - POLIMI DESIS Lab Italy (Italy)
The Polimi DESIS Lab members actively worked to legally establish the DESIS Association. The Lab had an active role in setting up the agreement and in establishing the necessary protocols and legal requirements for the association. The association was established in 2014, under the Italian law, and members of the Polimi DESIS Lab assumed its leading roles:
“If I consider the critical turning points in our story from the point of view of our contribution to the DESIS network, our contribution to the transition from an informal group to an association, it was not only a turning point, it was a revolution”.
The DESIS Network “is a cultural association” that “exclusively and directly pursues non-profit objectives”. Its purpose is “to promote the research work of the members and co-operation among each other” (from the DESIS Network Statute).
One of the Polimi DESIS Lab members is the international coordinator (IC) and other members form part of the Platform team. The President of the DESIS Network is a former member of the Polimi DESIS Lab (when previously called DIS research unit – Design and Innovation for Sustainability). There is an International Coordination Committee that performs an advisory and supportive role, and is composed by DESIS Lab representatives based in other universities all over the world.
The IC’s specific tasks are to coordinate all the DESIS activities and prepare and organize the annual virtual Assembly; with the support of the Platform team, to direct the Platform organization (website) and communication activities and to find the economic resources required to manage the network coordination.
The platform Team is a team with the skills needed to manage the Platform operation. The Platform Team members are chosen by the IC and are based in their particular university. They manage and up-grade the DESIS Website and support the organizational needs of the IC.
The International Coordinator with the Platform Team put into effect a Two-year Program that was previously approved by the assembly of members.
Both the international coordinator and the Platform Team have remained in charge for 2 years, starting from the 1st of January in the year following the IC’s election. The Polimi DESIS Lab started to coordinate the DESIS Network in 2014, and this mandate has been renewed for two more years (until 2017).
The idea that the DESIS Network should be formalized in an institutional format was developed progressively over the years:
“The founder and others members started looking for more institutional recognition. They were looking for a format in which, even though it would be a ‘light structure’, would enable us to have some formalization”.
By a “light structure” it was understood that the DESIS Association should have a very light leading core, to manage the website, organize one assembly and to foster knowledge exchange between the Labs all over the world. The idea was to define a very “light and flexible” coordination, and keep development of the network specific initiatives with the DESIS Labs:
“We began to investigate the various possible types of structure used by other networks and, in the end we choose the ‘association’ format. An association with few rules, but effective, that would allow the formalization of the network”.
This process lasted more than a year. It is important to constitute an association in order to define the president; the associate members and an institutional headquarter. All the internal regulations you can define exactly as you want to because they will be approved in the first assembly”.
“We have worked hard to define these rules. It was a participatory process, because they were initially defined by us in the Polimi DESIS Lab, together with the founder. We made an initial draft that was shared with the most active members within the network, which gave feedback. The draft was presented in several conferences, at least two, in order to get more feedback. Later, the rules were organized in a final version (DESIS Statute) and presented at the first Assembly in Johannesburg, where they were confirmed”.
The headquarters of the Association were defined in Milano, Italy, but may be transferred by decision of the Assembly. The initial associated members were (who have signed the document founding the association): Politecnico di Milano (Italy), The New School (USA), University of Arts London (UK), Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Jiangnan University and Tongji University (China). The final version of the statute also defined the role of president and other leading roles.
Three important events were identified in the development of the DESIS Network, before it was formalized as an association.
The first was the EMUDE project, developed between 2004 and 2006. The project set up a network of design schools (The Antennas Network) to collect and showcase social innovation cases. This inspired the creation of the DESIS Network
The second in the “Changing the Change” Conference in 2008, on which the future president of the DESIS Network presented the idea that an open and collaborative program, developed by a multiplicity of design schools, centres and agencies, would be required to advance design knowledge about social innovation.
The third moment was the first initiative, in 2011, to organize the DESIS Network. It was done in an informal way and the main aim was to map the existing Labs and to give visibility to their activities.
The first important event, after the formalization of DESIS Network as an association, was the first Assembly, that took place in Johannesburg, in 2014.
2004-2006 Project Emerging Users Demands for Sustainable solutions (EMUDE). The project placed its focus on social innovation as a driver for technological and system innovation. At the base of its activities EMUDE explored the hypothesis that creative communities, and the promising cases they generate, could at the same time both anticipate a possible future, and offer concrete indications as to how technological, production and market innovation could be orientated from now on. The project included the following actions: - the identification of cases of social innovation geared towards sustainability; - evaluation, selection and bringing the most promising cases to light; - clarification of the demand for products, services and the solutions they gave rise to; - visualisation, communication and dissemination of these cases and their possible implications by means of technological trends, scenarios and roadmaps.
2008- Changing the Change Conference. It aimed to make a significant contribution to a necessary transformation that involved changing the direction of current changes toward a sustainable future. It specifically intended to outline the state-of-the-art of design research in terms of vision, proposals and tools with which design can actively and positively take part in the wider social learning process that will have to take place. It was an important step in starting to understand the “new design knowledge” required (and how to produce it) to support the new role designers are asked to perform to foster the transition towards sustainability.
2011 – Formalisation of DESIS Network starts. DESIS Network members define an informal coordination that starts to map the characteristics of the DESIS Labs and to register the affiliations.
2014 - 1st Assembly of the DESIS Association, in the framework of the Cumulus Conference (Johannesburg – South Africa). The first Assembly of the new born association was a historical moment for the DESIS Network. Until 2014, the DESIS Network was managed as an informal network. Now, as an association, it is being coordinated by the President, International Coordinator (IC) and Platform team, three key roles of the new organizational structure. The Assembly gathered DESIS Network members, i.e., representatives of DESIS Labs all over the world, both physically and virtually (a live broadcasting of the event was available, and an open channel was opened to receive feedback on-line)
“To get the network organized in a formal structure was not really that easy. There was a big issue that was the economic part.
The main issue discussed was the membership fee, which was something that we (Polimi DESIS Lab members) considered when we started to draft the rules for the future DESIS association.
It would be this: ‘if you want to be part of this network, make a subscription, pay a fee, and this fee would allow the operation of the network’.
During the participatory process, in which the initial draft was analysed and discussed by the other members, we realized that this would not be possible.
It was not possible to define a membership fee because there were some Labs that had economic resources and others who did not.
So, with the membership fee we were about to create some Labs defined under a ‘category A’ and others under a ‘category B’.
This was intensively discussed. We arrived at a final format in which no one would pay anything, and that the person who would perform the role of coordinator would also ensure, with their own financial resources, the operation of the network”.
Yes, the formalization of the DESIS Network as an association under the Italian Law was understood as a critical turning point for the DESIS Network and was the result of a long process which started in 2010 and was led by the DESIS founder.
The founder had a key role in starting up this process but members of the Polimi DESIS Lab performed a key role in defining the final version of the Statute:
(1) by investigating a better institutional format;
(2) by writing the initial draft;
(3) by organizing the participatory process in which all other Labs were invited to give feedback and
(4) by organizing the results in a final version (DESIS Statute).
It was a critical turning point also for the Polimi DESIS Lab, which assumed the coordination of a network with more than 50 other Labs all over the world:
“We opened a call for those who wanted to be a coordinator. So when we had the first meeting it was opened for nominations, but only one person applied and this person was from the Polimi DESIS lab.
Certainly this happened as a result of recognition for previous achievements. The Polimi DESIS lab had worked on design for social innovation for years and the candidate from this Lab had worked for years with the founder of the DESIS network. It seemed a natural step to have the first coordinator from the Polimi DESIS Lab.
However it was not forced and nominations had been opened to all”.
The role of coordination of the DESIS Network is considered a privilege, in terms of the awareness of what is happening in the network:
“You are always informed of what is happening in the other Labs in the world, you are a key player. All information passes through you. This is certainly a privilege”.
One of the key rules in the DESIS Statute is that each Lab must:
(1) collaborate in promoting and developing at least one DESIS Initiative;
(2) participate in the annual DESIS Assembly;
(3) present a short report on their activities and programs at the annual Assembly.
This is considered an important step in the development of the network:
“You have an annual event, an Assembly, therefore you have more structure. The Network is more regulated. You know (as a Lab, member of the DESIS Network) that every year there is a meeting in which you are required to report what you've done, you must present what you did throughout the year".
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