IASDR conference paper

We have published a conference paper in the IASDR 2025 Proceedings. Mauricio Mejía, Katie Pine, and Ruchita Mandhre co-authored this paper on the tensions in collaboration between social scientists and design researchers. The paper will be available in the DRS Digital Library next year.

Interdisciplinary tensions in the integration of strategic design and community-engaged research practices

Abstract: The meaning of design and the approaches to design activities are distinctive for practitioners of different design disciplines and other disciplines. In this article, the authors report a document case study where social scientists, design researchers, and community partners (fire leaders and personnel of four fire departments in the US) collaborated on a research project with a design component, aiming to create technologies and services for fire departments in the US. In analyzing the process and engaging in reflection, we identified our overlapping but distinct approaches. Social scientists adopted a community-engaged research approach, and design researchers adopted a strategic design approach. While everyone tried to combine analytical and intuitive work modes, the specific assumptions and work cultures showed contrasting views of the design activities of framing, sense-making, and visioning. This case provides signals to continue further exploration of the integration of community-engaged research and strategic design.