PhD in DESIGN - 34th cycle Research Field: EMPOWERING EVIDENCE-BASED POLICY DESIGN APPROACHES FOR CITY GOVERNANCE. INTEGRATING A DESIGN FOR POLICY PERSPECTIVE WITH OPEN AND BIG DATA PROCESSING AND VISUALIZATION Monthly net income of PhDscholarship (max 36 months) 1160.0 In case of a change of the welfare rates during the three-year period, the amount could be modified. Context of the research activity Interdisciplinary PhD Grant The PhD research will be carried out in collaboration with research groups of the PhD programme in "URBAN PLANNING, DESIGN, AND POLICY". See http://www.dottorato.polimi.it/index.php?id=242&l=1 for further information. Motivation and objectives of the research in this field There is no doubt that design has increasingly acquired recognition There is a growing interest in applying design methods and approaches to policy-making that is the most recent element in the debate stemmed from the acknowledgment of the potentialities of design tools for improving government efficiency at many levels. In particular, policy has always been conceived as a provider of solutions to significant societal problems; however, it belongs to an old model of imagining policy, where societal issues were clear and well understood. In the current context, socio-economic challenges are dynamic, systemic, and interconnected, thus resisting a straightforward adaptation of the past methods used to take and implement governmental decisions. Policy can no longer be seen and made by and for themselves. As a situated practice, it can only make sense if strictly linked to understanding issues in context and connection with a practical outlook and consequences. Further, the assumption of a linear policy cycle needs to be challenged at its core, questioning how and when to gather the evidence necessary for resource allocation, as well as 1 / 5
framing the type required. Emerging practices show the construction of a structured approach that allows the integration and use of the vast amount of data available at the individual, collective and environmental scale. The proposed research aims at building a robust phenomenology of the connection between evidencebased policy-making processes, new data harvesting, processing and visualizing approaches, and citizen-centric governance models for the cities. The research scope is to build a theoretical framework capable of focusing the understanding of the complex interdependency between data-driven scenarios and policy making perspectives and practices through the use of data gathering, interpretation and visualization, and to develop new ways to handle the complexity of growing societal challenges. The intent is to define a path of action-research that can robustly test approaches and methods of design in this area. The general objective is the development of a theoretical and pragmatic insight able to connect data, design, and policy-making which could be explored through a series of further goals: - the development of a design methodology for the development of evidence-based policy based upon the use of data; - the field test and development of design tools and approaches to actively support complex and dynamic governance models; - the setup and development of an Open Data-Based Policy Lab, with its core approaches, tools, activities. Methods and techniques that will be developed and used to carry out the research We're interested in analyzing the research area from a phenomenological perspective searching for: - all the experiences that have already implemented real solutions and processes for civic transformation through the development of relevant and highly innovative Public Innovation Spaces (policy labs, urban innovation hubs...); - Digital Social Innovation cases (tools, platforms, experiences...) which adopt the use of techniques and methodologies attributable to the field of co-design and service design (digital ethnography, service prototyping, 2 / 5
cultural probes...) also having a special attention to the integration of data visualization, analysis, and mapping. We are also interested in framing a scientific and methodological approach to the use of quantitative and qualitative data in model representation and socioeconomic decision making processes. Educational objectives The Candidate will acquire the knowledge and the ability (theoretical, operational, critical) necessary to make an in depth inquiry of the research area described above and address the main issues raised by this challenging disciplinary transformation. We imagine to build a multidisciplinary set of abilities which could mix different research fields (design for policy, data science and visualization, community development for urban govenrance, media and communication design, policy making for urban innovation.) Job opportunities The future PhD Candidate could acquire a set of capabilities which could be interesting for different career perspectives.first of all in the Academic field (teaching, research, consultancy) but also in the private area, working as a researcher/consultant in large consultancy agencies, enterprises, public or private institutions. Moreover, he/she could even imagine to use the acquired competencies for founding and developing new start-up enterprises based on innovative processes, technologies and services (created for the thesis). Composition of the research group Name of the research directors 1 Full Professors 2 Associated Professors 2 Assistant Professors 0 PhD Students Stefano Maffei; Grazia Concilio Contacts E-mail adress: stefano.maffei@polimi.it phone number: +39 335 5411280 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/stefano_maffei3 E-mail adress: grazia.concilio@polimi.it phone number: +39 339 7005146 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/grazia_concilio 3 / 5
E-mail adress: paolo.ciuccarelli@polimi.it phone number: +39 335 5621686 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/paolo_ciuccarelli The proponents also have a strong portfolio of already done and ongoing projects and a series of initiatives and research structures (labs, research infrastructures) within the two Departments that represent considerable potential for the development of the Ph.D. research project.here below a list of Labs/activities/research projects (done, ongoing) Open4citizens > www.open4citizens.eu Urbanscope > http://urbanscope.polimi.it/#/ Polivisu > https://www.polivisu.eu/ Designscapes > https://www.designscapes.eu/ Fondazione Cariplo > https://www.includimi.polimi.it/ Design Policy Lab + Design for Europe PlatformPolitecnico di Milano Unit http://www.designpolicy.eu/ http://designforeurope.eu/ Density Design Labhttps://densitydesign.org/ Service Design MasterPoli.Design. Politecnico di Milanohttp://www.servicedesignmaster.com/ Polifactory http://www.polifactory.polimi.it/home Rethink Festival Service Design > http://rethinkfestival.it/ Additional support - Financial aid per PhD student per year (gross amount) Housing - Foreign Students -- Housing - Out-of-town residents (more than 80Km out of Milano) -- Additional information: educational activity, teaching assistantship, computer availability, desk availability, any other information Educational activities (purchase of study books and material, funding for participation in courses, summer schools, workshops and conferences): financial aid per PhD student per year 2nd year: max 1.534,33 euros per student 3rd year: max 1.534,33 euros per student Teaching assistanship: availability of funding in recognition of supporting teaching activities by the PhD student there are various forms of financial aid both for research and teaching activities. The PhD student is encouraged to take part in these activities, within the limits allowed by the regulations. Computer availability: 1st year, 2nd year and 3rd year: Each research group will supply PhD student with a computer, if necessary. 4 / 5
Desk availability: 1st year, 2nd year and 3rd year: Each research group will supply phd student with a desk. 5 / 5