The Role of Design in Strengthening Communities of Resilience for Sustainable Futures

Abstract

A rapidly deteriorating climate in conjunction with escalating geopolitical tensions, and social and ecological injustice, has created heightened conditions of vulnerability and displacement for millions of people around the globe. In such times of unsettlement, the necessity to increase the resilience of communities towards viable and sustainable futures becomes imminent. This research aims to reconceptualise the relationship between resilience, community, and design, by recognising, framing, and applying design thinking and the role of design to strengthening communities of resilience. Against this backdrop, design is approached as a meta-discipline and acknowledged as a change agent in the arena of community resilience and adaptive capacity to both immediate and long-term risk. The thesis therefore puts forward the primary research question, “how can strategic and integrated approaches to design strengthen communities of resilience towards sustainable futures?” The research redefines the key themes of resilience, community, and design, reviewing these not in isolation but instead opening these concepts to broader speculation than current preconceived parameters. In doing so, it is underpinned by an interpretive approach to reveal findings through a design futures lens. To test the validity of existing theoretical frameworks and investigate the viability of alternative ones, a case study methodology was employed. The regional centres of Charleville and Mackay in Queensland, Australia, became foci of contextualising vulnerability, as communities demonstrating heightened risk across a range of geographic, environmental, climatic, and socioeconomic factors. The case studies incorporated a series of semi-structured interviews and open-ended surveys with community, business, and local government representatives, which enabled the documentation and analysis of the participants’ experiences and understandings on the ground towards resilience and community — past, present, and future. The findings of the case studies brought to the fore the particularities of each location, while making evident how localities are intertwined with regional and global geopolitical circumstances. From these findings, this thesis makes recommendations regarding an expanded role for design in the arena of community resilience that reaches beyond current approaches. It recognises as essential the integration of a community-driven resilience strategy for transformative purposes, facilitated through a process of embedding design within community, scaffolded through the continuing mentorship of a community of design professionals. To conclude, it puts forward the proposal of rethinking communities of resilience as communities acting locally in time, thinking globally through time, and working transformatively towards regenerative and sustainable futures.