This document includes synopses of lectures and discussion topics, and references for readings with page numbers. The  course is organized around the Transition Design Framework, successively moving through ‘vision’, ‘theories of change’,  ‘mindset and posture’ and ‘new ways of designing’. It also includes a number of class assignments.
Download a copy of the Transition Design seminar, 2015>>

This document places the transition design seminar in the context of various contemporary ‘transition discourses’, gives a course overview and summarizes course objectives, learning outcomes and structure.
Download a copy of the Transition Design syllabus 2015>>

Two Transition Design case study templates that incorporated the ideas discussed in the seminar were given to students.  The first guided them in a critique of an existing project, the second asked them to hypothetically develop this project.
Download the case study templates 2015>>

Transition Design
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_design

Transition Management (governance)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_management_(governance)

Transition Town
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_town

Transition Network
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/

Great Transition Initiative
http://greattransition.org

Transition United States
http://www.transitionus.org/transition-towns

Transition Academy
http://transitionacademy.nl

The Long Now Foundation
http://longnow.org

Sustainability Transitions Research Network (STRN)
http://www.transitionsnetwork.org/

Center for Ecoliteracy
http://ecoliteracy.org

Sustainable Everyday Project
http://www.sustainable-everyday-project.net

Donella Meadows Institute
http://www.donellameadows.org

Resilience
http://www.resilience.org

Post-Carbon Institute
http://www.postcarbon.org

New Economics Foundation
http://www.neweconomics.org

Deutsche Post, Logistics 2050 — a Scenario Study
http://www.dhl-usa.com/en/press/events/logistics_2050.html

Tellus Institute
http://www.tellus.org/index.php

Shareable
http://www.shareable.net/

Commons Transition
http://commonstransition.org

Four Orders of Design
http://www.ida.liu.se/~steho/desres/buchanan.pdf

AIGA: Transition Design: Re-conceptualizing Whole Lifestyles
http://www.aiga.org/video-HHH-2013-irwin-kossoff-tonkinwise/

Emergent Structures
http://www.emergentstructures.org/

Pratt Design Incubator
http://incubator.pratt.edu/

designmatters
http://www.designmattersatartcenter.org/

Social Design Pathways: Winterhouse Symposium
http://www.socialdesignpathways.com/about/

Living Principles for Design: AIGA
http://livingprinciples.aiga.org/

Doors of Perception
http://www.doorsofperception.com/working-with-john-thackara/

Schumacher College
https://www.schumachercollege.org.uk/

DESIS Design Network
https://www.desis-network.org/

The Transition Design Bibliography contains references and links to texts relevant to the emerging field of Transition Design and has been organized into categories that correspond to the four areas of the Framework. Many texts are  naturally relevant to more than one area.

Key topics include: cosmopolitan localism, relationship to place, futuring, scenario planning, long-term thinking, narrative and storytelling

Key topics include: living systems theory, ecology, transitions management/sustainability transitions, socio-technical  regimes, post-normal science, needs theory, everyday life critique, social practice theory, social psychology, framing and  metaphor, alternative economics, systems thinking, social ecology.

Key topics include: worldview/mindset, Goethean science, holism and form, mechanicism/reductionism, phenomenology, aesthetics/beauty, craft, collaboration, transdisciplinarity, indigenous wisdom, ecopsychology, relationality, self-reflection, new ways of being, mind and body.

Key topics include: social innovation, service design, permaculture, transition design, design ethics, indigenous design,  biomimicry, ecological design, wicked problems, co-design.

Download a copy of the Transition Design Bibliography 2015>>

The transition to a sustainable society is one of the most important and exciting design challenges of our era. Today, designers in both professional practice and education are undertaking projects in sustainable design and social innovation. However, these efforts lack a unifying framework. In the face of social and environmental challenges, a vibrant, international grassroots “transition movement” is working to build local community resilience. How do designers identify their role and become a voice in this movement?

This presentation proposes “transition design” as a new field that uses the tools, processes and studio culture of design to facilitate this. Transition design focuses on reconceiving everyday life and societal systems around food, health, transportation, policy and energy resources to be more sustainable. Transition designers understand the interconnectedness of social and natural systems and conceive solutions that leverage the power of symbiosis. Viewers are introduced to the four aspects of transition design and presented with examples of transition initiatives. This lecture was given at the AIGA National Design conference in Minneapolis, October, 2013.

Leading social innovation and sustainable design theorist Ezio Manzini explores emerging forms of collaboration in design practice, which are driving radical, bottom-up social innovation.

In Transition 2.0 gathers stories from grassroots, community based transition activists from around the world:  “You’ll hear about communities printing their own money, growing food, localising their economies and setting up community power stations. It’s an idea that has gone viral, a social experiment that is about responding to uncertain times with solutions and optimism. In a world of increasing uncertainty, here is a story of hope, ingenuity and the power of growing vegetables in unexpected places”

Based on Jonathon Porritt’s book ‘The World We Made’, fictional history teacher Alex Mackay describes, “the key events, technological breakthroughs and lifestyle revolutions that we have collectively created and that have made the world what it is in 2050.” An important example of the future visioning and backcasting process that is integral to transition design.

The Great Transition Initiative is an international network of scholars from all fields, activists, citizen groups and organizations who, similarly to transition design, “champion whole system change to a life-sustaining society”.

An overview of the Great Transition Initiative framework and vision, which includes advocacy of cultural transformation, a reinvention of our economy and institutional structures and a cessation of the quest to conquer the natural world.

An introduction to the field of sustainability transitions, which researches and develops methods and tools for transitioning socio-technical sectors such as agriculture, water, energy and building.
Derk Loorbach, Sustainability Transitions, 2 of 10>>
Derk Loorbach, Sustainability Transitions, 3 of 10>>

This international symposium held in June 2016 on the Dartington Estate in Devon,home to pioneering experiments in living in the twentieth of century, brought together leading designers, educators, environmentalists and activists working, writing and researching on transition-related issues to explore the potential of Transition Design.
Opening Panel Discussion>>
Values Panel Discussion>>
The Political Economy of Transition>>
Learning to Design and Implement Transitions Discussion>>