Transition design: Elements of practice

Transition Design (TD), a discipline framed by Irwin, Kossoff, and Tonkinwise in 2015, integrates design-informed approaches with systems change, transitions research, and grassroots action to address societal challenges. Ten years post-inception, this study examines TD in practice through 35 empirical cases. Although working from common elements of practice, the cases often depart from the TD Framework method demonstrated in the flagship Ojai case. Reasons are varied, with practitioners looking outside design as well as drawing from creative and material practices within design. Modifications were needed, for instance, to engage with non-Western cultures, incorporate Indigenous worldviews and other forms of knowledge, and facilitate ‘ontological openness’. Tensions emerge as practitioners leverage the opportunities available to them, discrete pieces of work, and short-term funding toward long-term systems transformation. It is clear, however, that TD has opened space for a growing range of practices that put design in service of progressing transitions.