Envisioning future innovative experimental ecosystems through the foresight approach. Case: Design Factory

Abstract

Change makers are visionaries who wish to bring change to their respective fields. As technological change is accelerating, it is relevant to consider, how the way and what we teach can evolve with the future to remain meaningful and pioneering. Design Factory at Aalto University, as an innovative experimental ecosystem with interdisciplinary principles and new teaching methodologies has been successful in and at the forefront in educating the students to be change-makers. The paper presents a case study of holistically anticipating plausible futures for innovative experimental ecosystems utilizing a foresight approach. We analyze how the ways of working, spaces, and teaching methods of one such ecosystem, Design Factory at Aalto University in Finland, could support students learning in the year 20 × 6 {x = 2, 3}. We present the process of drawing virtual lines that connect trends, future drivers, visions, and scenarios using a contemporary approach that fuses qualitative and quantitative methods. The results from the study are six future scenarios for the Design Factory, that have implications for innovation ecosystems in general. These results are expected to further foster or trigger new research and development experiments, directions for building radical environments, new teaching methods and ways of working.

Citizen visions for European futures—methodological considerations and implications

“…This study has identified topics in visions on desirable and sustainable futures, which were authored by citizens in connection to three European projects: Civisti, Casi and Cimulact. Involving citizens in such foresight provides a parallel and analogous procedure to expert envisioning [14] and could be further institutionalised to an established form of foresight [2]. The benefits of considering participatory processes in backcasting exercises such as those performed in the examined projects have been observed before [19].…”

“…Addressing citizens as contributing foresight actors provides a largely untapped resource for foresight studies. Accordingly, developing and institutionalising procedures for citizen involvement in foresight [14,15] would help scholars to find their way amongst the myriad of methodologies and aims [16,17]. Apart from helping to overcome problems accrued from a democratic deficit in foresight due to heavy reliance on experts, citizen involvement may also reveal knowledge that experts do not identify as relevant or value highly [1].…”

The landscape of open innovation in Brazil: An analysis of the recent literature

“…Collaboration with external actors and the innovation ecosystem for the integrated development of innovations and technologies is a theme widely debated by studies on OI (e.g., Van de Vrande et al, 2009;Huizingh, 2011;Munigala et al, 2018;Pitelis & Teece, 2018). In this sense, as observed by Holzmann et al (2014), a fundamental activity in OI is to find suitable partners for collaboration.…”

Citizen Perception of Open Data and Innovation in Mexico

“…The work of Munigala, Oinonen and Ekman (2018) analyzes the success of the Finnish educational system from a case on the perspective of the design of innovative environments that allow people to be agents of change (the students in that case), this, through the generation of scenarios that enable the resolution of problems from a holistic, personalized, flexible and collaborative perspective.…”