Jenny Darzentas and John Darzentas
This paper lays out a plan of action for literature review on Systemic Design. It argues that despite the newness of systemic design, there is scope for such work, especially if it departs from the typical styles of literature review, and a) takes a historical perspective, b) pulls in a range of heterogeneous literature, and c) if, in doing this, it takes its cue from systems itself, and uses systems thinking based methodologies to establish the interrelationships between systemic design and its influences and directions. Thus the goal of this paper is to explain the rationale for this review style and to call for it to become a strand of research that offers interested scholars a place to stand to examine the antecedents of the turn to systems by designers, to learn about the rich heritage of the systemic design and to help develop further themes within this design paradigm that are newly emerging.
Keywords: Literature review, systemic design, heterogeneous resources, historical perspective, emergent themes