RSD11 symposium

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Infrastructure as Advocacy: Infrastructuring mid-level actors with student-led research projects

Format: Papers, RSD11, Topic: Health & Well-being, Topic: Learning & Education, Topic: Sociotechnical Systems

Michael Arnold Mages

Northeastern University

Viewed from a systemic perspective, social services hold complex and rich profiles. From a tactical perspective, services play an important role in addressing community needs. However, services also play an important role in fostering community infrastructure and advancing the advocacy mission of an organization. This paper presents the cases of three related projects to develop interactive services for a key social service organization to address specific challenges faced by parents, guardians, and caregivers of pre-K children in East Boston. Rather than discussing these cases solely from the perspective of how they might meet the needs of residents, these cases will be further analyzed from the systemic perspective of these projects as tools for both infrastructure and advocacy.

KEYWORDS: systemic design, infrastructure, community design, midlevel organization, socio-technical systems, advocacy, early childhood education, social good

Citation Data

Author(s): Michael Arnold Mages
Year: 2022
Title: Infrastructure as Advocacy: Infrastructuring mid-level actors with student-led research projects
Published in: Proceedings of Relating Systems Thinking and Design
Volume: RSD11
Article No.: 132
URL: https://rsdsymposium.org/infrastructure-as-advocacy-infrastructuring-mid-level-actors-with-student-led-research-projects
Host: University of Brighton
Location: Brighton, UK
Symposium Dates: October 3–16, 2022
First published: 22 September 2022
Last update: 30 April 2023
Publisher Identification: ISSN 2371-8404

Copyright Information

Proceedings of Relating Systems Thinking and Design (ISSN 2371-8404) are published annually by the Systemic Design Association, a non-profit scholarly association leading the research and practice of design for complex systems: 3803 Tønsberg, Norway (922 275 696).

Attribution

Open Access article published under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International License. This permits anyone to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or form according to the licence terms.

Suggested citation format (APA)

Author(s). (20##). Article title. Proceedings of Relating Systems Thinking and Design, RSD##. Article ##. rsdsymposium.org/LINK

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Proceedings of Relating Systems Thinking and Design are published online and include the contributions for each format.

Papers and presentations are entered into a single-blind peer-review process, meaning reviewers see the authors’ names but not vice versa. Reviewers consider the quality of the proposed contribution and whether it addresses topics of interest or raises relevant issues in systemic design. The review process provides feedback and possible suggestions for modifications.

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Editor: Cheryl May
Advisors:
Peter Jones
Ben Sweeting

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In 2022, the Systemic Design Association adopted the scholars spiral—a cyclic non-hierarchical approach to advance scholarship—and in 2023, launched Contexts—The Systemic Design Journal. Together, the RSD symposia and Contexts support the vital emergence of supportive opportunities for scholars and practitioners to publish work in the interdisciplinary field of systemic design.

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