Manzini, E., 2015. Design, when everybody designs: an introduction to design for social innovation, Design thinking, design theory. The MIT Press.

“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way.  On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.” - Arundhati Roy

“ When confronted with new problems, human beings tend to use their innate creativity and design capacity to invent and realize something new: they innovate...These people may not only be solving their own problems. In doing what they do, they may also be setting the basis of a new civilization” (p.9).

“We define social innovations as new ideas (products, services and models) that simultaneously meet social needs and create new social relationships or collaborations. In other words, they are innovations that are both good for society and enhance society’s capacity to act” (p.11).

“This intentional collaboration lies at the crossroads of two trajectories: one moving from the hyperindividualism of most industrialized societies toward a (re)discovery of the power of doing things together, and the other from traditional communities in less industrialized societies toward more flexible forms of intentional collaboration.” (p.24).

“Design mode means the outcome of combining three human gifts: critical sense (the ability to look at the state of things and recognize what cannot, or should not be, acceptable), creativity (the ability to imagine something that does not yet exist), and practical sense (the ability to recognize feasible ways of getting things to happen). Integrating the three makes it possible to imagine something that is not there, but which could be if appropriate actions were taken” (p.31).

“So, in this conceptual framework(the role of design experts is to conceive and enhance a multiplicity of design initiatives to be promoted at the different nodes of the designing network. These design initiatives are coherent sequences of design actions geared to triggering and supporting a co-design process. For example: carrying out and communicating an ethnographic analysis; effectively mapping the physical and social resources in a particular area; creating communicative artifacts…” (p.51).

“Big-ego design is left over from the last century’s demiurgic vision, in which design was the act of particularly gifted individuals capable of imprinting their personal stamp on artifacts and environments…Post-it design ends up by transforming design experts into administrative actors, with no specific contributions to bring, other than aiding the process with their post-its (and at the end, maybe, with some pleasing visualizations).” (p.66).