Title: Design in socio-technical system development: three angles in a common framework

Authors: Pieter W.G. Bots

Addresses: Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University of Technology, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands; Cemagref, Montpellier Regional Centre, BP 5095, 34033 Montpellier Cedex 1, France

Abstract: Large-scale socio-technical systems, such as infrastructures for transport, energy and telecommunication, are not designed and then constructed according to plan. Rather, they develop over a long period of time as a result of countless changes. Nonetheless, most of these changes have been produced by design. Three types of designs – system design, decision process design, and institutional design – are identified as pertinent to large-scale socio-technical systems, and characterised by applying a generic conceptual framework to a fictitious case. This characterisation provides some insights into the variety of design problems that must be addressed in the context of socio-technical system development.

Keywords: artefacts; car sharing; sociotechnical systems; CO2 emissions; system design; decision process design; institutional design; design process; flow; regime; structure; carbon dioxide emissions; design research.

DOI: 10.1504/JDR.2007.014883

Journal of Design Research, 2007 Vol.5 No.3, pp.382 - 396

Published online: 14 Aug 2007 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article