Part of: Emily Carr University of Art + Design

Course: Contemporary Dialogues in Design

Small, local, open and connected: an emerging scenario

Keywords: SLOC, Resilient System, Sustainable Qualities, Social Innovation, Socio-technical

Ezio Manzini is one of the leading experts on Sustainable Design and the author of numerous design books, who focuses on the designer's role in changing systems and building scenarios towards environmental and social quality solutions. In addition, he is a teacher, researcher and founder of DESIS Network (Design for Social Innovation towards Sustainability). It is a network of university-based design labs. Along with his interest in design for sustainability, he has explored various design fields, such as Design of Materials, Strategic Design and Service Design (Brooks, 2011; Ezio Manzini - Social Innovation Generation, n.d.; Ezio Manzini | Design Principles & Practices Research Network, n.d.).

In the paper 'Resilient Systems & Sustainable Qualities Small, Local, Open, Connected: An Emerging Scenario Manzini writes about the unforeseen happenings, ordinary person's struggle to survive and human dignity at the center which have silently innovatively in an evolutionary manner forced the prominent stakeholders to bow before SLOC – small, local, open and connected. Earlier prominent industrialists, manufacturers, used to have total integrated campuses. However, currently, the small unit craftsmen, producers are generating parts or commodities at the local level using local labours and material, resulting in a win-win situation. That is to say, globally spread over small units gave birth to small entrepreneurs, providing employment adding to environmental improvement. Moreover, it is a human-centered, resilient and sustainable system.

Owning to different unpredictable day-to-day traumatic happenings like natural calamities, human-made wars, terrorism, financial and economic crisis, the society is a "risk society." However, if the society desires a status of a sustainable society, then it must have the ability, flexibility and capacity to withstand whatever comes in the way; that is the way of resilience. Nowadays, this risk has become almost daily routine making the notion of resilience into mass vocabulary, forcing the policymakers to include it into policy agenda at the earliest and to the designer community as its aim and practical actions.

Resilient Systems

Manzini puts the question before designers, 'how to design a resilient socio-technical system?' The socio-technical approach is an understanding of the social structures, roles, and rights to inform the design of systems involving people and technology communities (What are Socio-Technical Systems? n.d.). The study of 'natural systems,' which are diverse and complex, provides the answer and solution. Nature has been a great teacher for humankind for ages. The author explains that the designer has to conceive the idea of socio-technical systems similar to natural adaptation systems where even if one or more elements get dismantled, the whole system does not collapse. For example, unforeseen happenings like today's COVID-19 Pandemic will affect the localized area while other areas are safe. Manzini questions the standing of designers in a human-made environment on the background of unsustainable trends witnessed by the last century, practicing modernization in the "wrong direction," killing traditional agriculture and craftsmanship through mushrooming of industrialization. The net result is the destruction of biodiversity and, in turn, socio-technical diversity.

The technological network and enthusiasm simultaneously caused the emergence of new generations of the distribution system, giving rise to three innovative waves. First, with the advent of laptops and the internet, the monopoly of hierarchical architecture using large mainframe computers became outdated, and knowledge became accessible to anybody through the evolution of distributed intelligence. The second innovation wave is an altered energy system where the large grids are overtaken by small, efficient power plants, renewable energy plants and smart grids, demonstrating the worth of a distributed system of architectures. Finally, the third wave of innovation is related to globalized production and consumption, which needs reshaping through synchronizing micro-factory small producers, local farming, and craftsmanship through advanced technology to produce near consumption areas.

The three innovations aim to reduce the distance between product place and consumption place, driven by motivations. The first motivation is the search for efficiency about information, energy and production. The second is the desire to use local and minimal resources. The third is an interest in quality of proximity, like citizens and farmers linking together for food items.

Sustainable Qualities

Manzini emphasizes that without social innovation, the achievements in a distributed system cannot survive. Social innovation is implementing practical solutions to complex environmental and social concerns. Often, solutions require active collaboration between constituents from government, business, and the nonprofit sector (Soule, et al., cited in Defining Social Innovation, n.d.). Communities are already exploring sustainable qualities through local interventions like supplying locally produced goods to locals through shared transport and other facilities. This indicates the realization of resilient, distributed socio-technical systems. The innovation in the distributed socio-technical system is possible due to groups of creative communities whose visions are far ahead of big planners. The players involved here are concerned with a human-centered sustainable society. Designers of the past century contributed to unsustainable qualities, but now some are enduring sustainable qualities.

Emerging Scenario

SLOC stands for small, local, open and connected; these are adjectives of two elements of resilient systems and sustainable qualities that generated a new vision of how a sustainable, networked society could manifest. Therefore, the SLOC scenario demands many converging design programs with collaborative solutions, updated craftsmanship, territorial ecology, and sustainable qualities. The author quotes "Small is Beautiful," a book by E.F. Schumacher, where the choice for small and local was on the grounds of ethics and culture. However, that was forty years back, and small was small and local was local. However, Manzini adds that the entire scenario has changed today, and 'small' can control large producers, and 'local' has become global. When these two are open and connected, they can become design guidance for creating resilient systems and sustainable qualities and a positive feedback loop between these systems.

In short, Ezio Manzini has very categorically tried to emphasize the importance of Resilient Systems and Sustainable Qualities concerning SLOC - small, local, open and connected.

"Behind each of these promising social innovations there are groups of people who have generated them—groups of creative and entrepreneurial people who invented, enhanced and managed innovative solutions, recombining what already exists without waiting for larger changes in the system (in the economy, in institutions, in large infrastructures). Creative communities that challenge traditional ways of doing things introduce behaviours that, often, present unprecedented capacities for bringing individual interests into line with social and environmental ones (for example, they often incidentally reinforce the social fabric). In doing so, these communities generate ideas about a more sustainable wellbeing—a wellbeing where greater value is given to a new set of qualities." (Ezio, 2013, p. 12)

In support of the above-quoted paragraph, I have cited an article from the GAIA organization written by Beryl Tranco. GAIA aims to empower entrepreneurs who transition away from the current linear and extractive economy and towards a circular system that supports people's rights to a safe and healthy environment. Bittu John's 7 to 9 Green Store in Kerala, India, is the perfect example to justify it. Bittu is an Aeronautical Engineering graduate and the son of a grocery store owner in Kerala, India. During his trip to London, he learnt the concept of 'Bring-Your-Own-Container' (BYOC) shopping. He instantly intended to implement this idea in the form of 'zero plastic waste' and promote selling local supplies in his father's store. It was challenging to convince the customers; however, the strategy of a 2% discount every time customers brought their own containers encouraged them to keep shopping regularly. Moreover, when the customer did not have a container, Bittu sold organic cotton bags that they could repeatedly use for their grocery shopping.

While the intentions were right, changing the customer preferences was complicated at first. They choose branded products over unbranded products. Therefore, Bittu started giving free samples, and gradually customer trust was built. However, there was a lack of knowledge and trust seen amongst customers regarding why local products were essential for economic purposes and how much impact it has on the environment even if one store decides not to use plastic. The store soon got attention as the knowledge circulated by word of mouth; customers also got inspired when they saw someone they looked up to practicing the values Bittu was trying to bring upon. This shows that it is challenging to change human behavior at a system level, but innovative strategies could help overcome it.

Through this example, I appreciate that Bittu took the knowledge from a different country to apply it in a local context. When other entrepreneurs approached him, he did not keep any secrets about building his shop or getting customers; this is important because not every individual is open to talking about the process and has the primary purpose of gaining fame and profitability. Along with this, there are two kinds of creatives, first, set of people working on creating a brand-new biodegradable waste material that replaces plastic at a sustainable rate and tries to create a significant impact at once. Second, people like Bittu formulate small changes in the existing system to slow sustainability issues. In my opinion, both are important in their places. Altogether, it is applaudable to see someone attempt to break out of existing trending methods and become successful; in this example, the selling of branded and plastic-packaged products. This example fits well within the SLOC scenario.

In my opinion, it is necessary to note that not everyone has the ability and capacity to work towards creating a social impact in society. Therefore, organizations like DESIS lab and Digital Impact Square (https://www.digitalimpactsquare.com/) play a vital role in creating resilient systems and sustainable qualities. Furthermore, these organizations help build within the existing ecosystem and provide exposure to different knowledge systems, facilities, infrastructure, stakeholders, and a lot more.

To conclude, as designers, it is essential to note that sometimes small changes can make a more significant difference, and rather than creating something entirely new, it could help out if one tries to work on the issue at a local level first and by searching for organizations whose aim are towards the same direction. Designers should try to incorporate resilient systems in their practices.

References

• About – 7 to 9 Green store. Retrieved 2 December 2021, from https://7to9greenstore.com/about/
• Brooks, S. (2011). Design For Social Innovation: An Interview With Ezio Manzini By Sarah Brooks. Retrieved 2 December 2021, from https://countercurrents.org/brooks090811.htm
• Defining Social Innovation. Retrieved 2 December 2021, from https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/experience/about/centers-institutes/csi/defining-social-innovation
• Manzini, E. (2013) “:Resilient Systems & Sustainable Qualities Small, Local, Open,  Connected: An Emerging Scenario,” Current [Preprint], (04).
• Ezio Manzini - Social Innovation Generation. Retrieved 2 December 2021, from http://www.sigeneration.ca/ezio-manzini/
• Ezio Manzini | Design Principles & Practices Research Network. Retrieved 2 December 2021, from https://designprinciplesandpractices.com/about/history/2018-conference/ezio-manzini
• Innovate to Enhance Lives in India. (2021). Retrieved 2 December 2021, from https://www.digitalimpactsquare.com/
• Tranco, B. (2020). 7-9 GREEN STORE: Transforming Shoppers. Retrieved 2 December 2021, from https://www.no-burn.org/7-9-green-store-transforming-shoppers/
• What are Socio-Technical Systems?. Retrieved 2 December 2021, from https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/socio-technical-systems