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"My talk with Josina Vink (Oslo School of Architecture & Design) asked the question “How can we better attend to social structures as design materials?” To answer this question, we have developed a practical tool—the Iceberg Blueprint of Social Structures—through an abductive design research approach that combines insights and evidence from both theory and practice during the tool’s iterative development process. The tool is useful for surfacing social structures when, for example, workshopping with a diverse group of participants.”

Why is this important?
"Deeply held beliefs and other social structures are key leverage points for catalyzing large scale changes in social systems. It is, thus, critical to acknowledge their influence and find ways to shape them as we work to address major challenges such as climate change and social injustice. Tools such as the Iceberg Blueprint of Social Structures can hopefully be of help in this process."

Can you tell us more about the conference?
"ServDes conferences are some of the biggest events that gather service design and service innovation academics and practitioners together. The 2020 conference was originally planned to be held in Melbourne in July, but due to the pandemic it was postponed and transformed into an online format. The theme of the conference was “Tensions, Paradoxes + Plurality” and a lot of the discussions explored the tensions and paradoxes service design and designers face when working in contexts of cultural, economic, historical, and environmental plurality. Another important focus was having a reflective dialogue between service design and the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples. The organizers did an amazing job of maintaining the open and respectful spirit of the conference even though the attendees could only meet and connect with one another virtually."

The presentation of the paper “Unpacking the nature of social structures as the materials of service design” is available on