Holistic world view

A holistic world view is a conception of the world that incorporates an ecological, social, cultural and psychological understanding. Having a holistic view is about not only understanding the whole picture and the individual parts of a system, but also the relationships that connect them. All systems are complex and dynamic, everything in this world is interconnected, a holistic view helps to form a deeper understanding of the situation.

Complex problems

Complex problems, also known as ‘wicked’ problems, are characterised by an entanglement of interdependencies resulting in an ambiguity of cause and effect. In other words, no clear solution to complex problems exist due to potential trade-offs associated with each strategy.[1] What’s more wicked problems are never the same, they are context specific and resist rigid protocols.  For this reason, wicked problems have been compared to raising a child: they are all unique and multifaceted—a successful upbringing of one child does not guarantee the same outcome when raising a second child. Complexity poses a challenge to the design process by asserting that creating a solution is secondary to understanding the problem.

 Design thinking

Design thinking is constantly evolving and its definition has never been absolute, literature alludes to a process that is creative, iterative, solution focused and human-centred. [2] The process is advocated as a powerful initiator of social innovation by incorporating the needs of people, the prospects of technology and business requirements.  In doing so, it aims to find a balance between feasibility, viability and desirability while considering consumer insights, needs and motivations. The approach is built on the premise that developing empathy with the target user will assist in overcoming assumptions that obscure effective solutions.

 Systems thinking.

A system is a group of entities (people, organs, molecules etc.) interconnected in such a way that they produce their own pattern of behaviour overtime. While a system may be triggered or driven by external forces it is the systems response to these forces that give insight into how the system works.[3] For example, we can think of water as a system made up of molecules, and wood as a system made up of cells. When water is dropped it behaves very differently to a piece of wood dropped in the same manner—in other words, the same outside event applied to different systems is likely to produce a different response. By observing the relationship between the structure of a system (and how it responds to events) an understanding of how a system works and how to alter its behaviour patterns begins to emerge. Systems thinking is a set of analytic skills that facilitate this investigation.[4]

Emergence

Emergence is the formation of collective behaviours that arise from an interaction of system elements. These properties cannot occur in isolation and are perceived to be distinct to the behaviours of individual parts. In other words, emergence describes the synergistic result of parts interacting with each other.[5]  Simple examples can be seen in the formation of a school of fish, or the pattern formed by a flock of birds. More complex examples would include the formation of a forest from trees, animals and fungi. In natural systems, emergence often reveals the inherent purposes of a system. In society emergent behaviours (like crime, homelessness and violence) may reveal unintended consequences of the interactions between system elements.

 Autopoiesis

Maturana and Varela introduced the concept of autopoiesis or ‘self-making’ to explain the processes by which a system achieves autonomy and maintains itself. The term autopoiesis can be broken down into two parts: ‘auto’ meaning ‘self’ and ‘poiesis’ meaning ‘creation’ or ‘production’. The concept is used to refer to a system that is capable of continually reproducing and realising the network of processes that produced it.[6] Living beings are an example of this ability as they are continually self-producing. Every autopoietic system is a unity of many interdependent parts, when one aspect of the system changes, the entire organism undergoes relative transformation, not only in the present but also in the subsequent lineage of the system. Autopoiesis is a fundamental concept, as it enables a distinction between living and non-living systems, and describes how systems can be designed in such way that they are self-sustaining and resilient.