A hyper-local place-based pedagogy for exploring design justice, ontological design and systems entanglement

To design transitions into fairer and healthier ways of living, we need to better understand how systems create conditions that damage the planet and make life difficult, unhealthy and unjust. So how do we support students in understanding and exploring systems? How can we help them cultivate a better understanding of their capacity to make decisions and responsibly navigate complex challenges? This case study research reports on an attempt to develop the capacity of master’s students to engage with systems from an ontological design perspective. The pedagogy intended to foreground inter-relationships between people and things in systems. Data from a series of discussions that formed a central part of the learning experience are analysed to understand the learning of students in this hyper-local place-based enquiry. The research contributes to developing discourse about how we teach and
introduce students to practise systemic design. It highlights how unjust and unhealthy circumstances can be found in the most familiar situations and that these can provide valuable learning spaces.