Research and Inspire

Learning outcomes

After successful completion of the course, the student is able to:

• Explain how social and cultural changes are born and gain momentum.
• Identify, contextualise and articulate the driving interest at the core of their design work.
• Research and articulate the social or cultural changes pertinent to their interest.
• Create an inspiring textual and visual narrative in the academic context.

Content

In the course students are guided through the process by which they learn to dive deep in analysing an issue or phenomenon they are interested in, contextualise their interest with relevant past and present cultural and societal changes, and develop insights that communicate the core and context of their interest. Students work by gradually establishing what their interest is about, which local and global temporal developments it is part of, what does it stand for, what are the key moments, figures and concepts in its past and present, and what kind of impact it has and might have in a specified context. Learning is supported with tutoring, readings and lectures on for example societal and cultural trend mechanisms and the history and theory of societal innovations. Writing and visualising the resulting narrative is supported with an introduction to the story building theory applied in an academic context. The course trains in and supports any kind of design-intensive insight development, including developing MA thesis argumentation.