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AHRC Refugee Transition Network Activity

‘Envision the Transition’ is a workshop taking place as part of the Participatory Design Conference (PDC), in Sibu, Sarawak in August 2024.

‘Envision the Transition’ is a result of the work developed by the Refugee Transition Network (RTN), an international networking project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

The project aims to apply Transition Design (TD) frameworks in the context of forced displaced population and urban refugee management.

After conversations with academics, co-designers and community-led organisations, we have devised 5 principles to help engage with other disciplines and communities in a real-world context:

• Decentring designing from participatory processes.
• Relational leadership
• Pluriversal approach
• Utopian imagination
• Inner practice: spiritual and political exercises

Read more about our 5 principles

Transition Living Lab

Based on these principles, ‘Envision the Transition’ is the first session in what will become a 12-week programme. Titled  ‘Transition Living Lab’, this series is designed for migrants, other displaced people and anyone else looking to inspire change in their own communities.

Objectives

This workshop aims to collectively imagine our inner change-making practice by bringing together traditional ecological knowledges and utopian imagination. We will experiment with techniques not only to share experiences and combine ideas, but also to incorporate and support the inner work of all our participants.

We will also explore how can we better connect with ourselves and with each other aligning our disciplines with our traditions.

AHRC Refugee Transition Network Activity

In October and November 2023, the Refugee Transition Network conducted two ‘Envision the Transition’ co-creative workshops with displaced people in the UK and Indonesia, involving over 30 participants.

Additionally, a ‘Training the Trainers’ workshop was held to build the capacity of eight displaced youth in Indonesia, who then became facilitators of the ‘Envision the Transition’ workshop.

These workshops were in collaboration with third-sector organisations: TERN in the UK and Archipelago Collective in Indonesia.

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Envision the Transition: UK with TERN

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In October 2023, in collaboration with TERN, we engaged five refugee women from Croatia, Chad, Syria, Ukraine, and Sudan in a one-day co-creative envisioning workshop with the Design School at London College of Communication.

The initiative served as a pilot for the Transition Living Lab, a model for training displaced people interested in becoming changemakers and agents of transition within their communities, utilising creative methods in a learning-by-doing approach.

‘Envision the Transition’ was conceived as the introductory session of a longer programme of activities that would serve as building blocks for the Transition Living Lab.

The workshop employed a methodology design that brought together elements of Transition Design, the Systemic Design Framework (extended double diamond), Utopia as Method, and Pluriversal Design.

The goal was to test assumptions and activities, receive feedback, and learn from the experiences of displaced people – identifying their main needs and drivers.

The workshop activities relied on Traditional Ecological Knowledge artefacts that participants brought, to develop utopian and pluriversal visions of the transitions they aimed to lead, understanding transition in terms of ecological and social justice.

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Envision the Transition: training the trainers workshop

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In November 2023, we collaborated with the Archipelago Collective in Jakarta, Indonesia, to prepare eight displaced youths to become facilitators of the two-day version of the ‘Envision the Transition’ workshop in Indonesia.

We introduced the trainers to the main key concepts and frameworks that informed the design of the workshop. Additionally, we covered skills in creative facilitation, group management, relational leadership, and a response-able pedagogy for change-making, encompassing its three principles:

• Art thinking,
• Meaningful engagement,
• Ethical anticipation.

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Envision the Transition: Indonesia with the Archipelago Collective

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The third iteration of the Transition Living Lab method took place in Jakarta, Indonesia, involving 25 displaced youth as well as youth from the local communities.

The workshop was delivered by the core research team in Jakarta and co-facilitated by the eight displaced youth who were previously trained. This extended version of the workshop aimed to test assumptions and learn from the displaced youths’ experiences of living in Indonesia as a transit country.

AHRC Refugee Transition Network Activity

The Refugee Transition Network will launch an online Student Companion Resource in the summer of 2024.

The resource will feature 18 good practice cases, including 10 by academics and practitioners, as well as student projects from four higher education institutions across Indonesia and the UK. It will be available in two languages: English and Bahasa. The aim is to share collaborative creative methods for engaging vulnerable communities.

The Refugee Transition Network project includes a pedagogical component. We have found that, although academic journal articles and project reports are published across disciplines and sectors for a range of audiences, there is a lack of learning resources for students and practitioners focused on careful and collaborative creative methods to meaningfully engage vulnerable communities.

In response, we are currently developing this online Student Companion Resource that compiles a range of good practice cases and lessons from academics and practitioners working with communities to co-create solutions for complex problems.

The Student Companion Resource will highlight eighteen short, good practice cases focusing on creative methods for community engagement. Ten of these cases are produced by academics and practitioners, and ten are postgraduate student projects that responded to the Transition Living Lab for displaced youth.

This resource will be published in English and Bahasa for postgraduate students and early career researchers.

AHRC Refugee Transition Network Activity

On 26 September 2023, the Refugee Transition Network hosted the Pluriversal Borderlands roundtable, featuring 12 international presenters from the UK, Spain, Canada, the US, Australia, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The event gathered 30 organisational representatives from the third and public sectors.

Discussions focused on the applicability of the Transition Design framework and methods for engaging vulnerable communities. The roundtable was highlighted by insights from the originators of Transition Design, Professor Terry Irwin from the School of Design and Director of the Transition Design Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, and Cameron Tonkinwise, Professor of Design Studies and Research Director at the Design Innovation Research Centre, University of Technology Sydney.

The discussions covered topics ranging from co-design and place-making with vulnerable urban communities to global systems change for displaced populations.

Approximately 30 representatives from various organisations attended the roundtable. Professors Irwin and Tonkinwise provided reflections and responses to both presenters and audience members, discussing the applicability and value of the Transition Design framework in practices involving displaced people and urban refugee management.