Integrating Design in Governance and Management
Creative Approaches for the Future
Will be published approx. on 23. October 2026
280 pages
E-Book
978-1-040-59673-9 (ISBN)
Description
This book explores how design can be meaningfully integrated into governance and management practices to address complex societal challenges.
Bringing together conceptual insights, empirical research, and practice-based approaches, the volume offers a critical and forward-looking perspective on the role of design in shaping future-oriented decision-making. It argues that design should not be understood merely as a tool for innovation, but as a practice of sense-making, experimentation, and world-making that helps translate abstract ambitions into actionable futures. Governance, management, and design are distinct yet increasingly interconnected practices. While governance organizes collective decision-making and management focuses on strategy and resource allocation, design has expanded beyond products and services to engage with systems, organizations, and futures. In contexts marked by uncertainty, polycrisis, and transformation, design approaches, from systemic and participatory design to speculative and practice-based methods, are increasingly mobilized to navigate complexity, mediate between actors, and prototype alternative pathways. This book critically examines these developments, highlighting both the transformative potential of design-based approaches and the risks of their instrumentalization. Through interdisciplinary contributions and case studies from Europe and North America, it demonstrates how design can support more reflexive, inclusive, and sustainable forms of governance and management.
This volume is relevant for students, researchers, and practitioners in design, governance, management, and sustainability fields, as well as for policy-makers, consultants, and professionals seeking to engage with innovative and critical approaches to contemporary transformation processes.
Bringing together conceptual insights, empirical research, and practice-based approaches, the volume offers a critical and forward-looking perspective on the role of design in shaping future-oriented decision-making. It argues that design should not be understood merely as a tool for innovation, but as a practice of sense-making, experimentation, and world-making that helps translate abstract ambitions into actionable futures. Governance, management, and design are distinct yet increasingly interconnected practices. While governance organizes collective decision-making and management focuses on strategy and resource allocation, design has expanded beyond products and services to engage with systems, organizations, and futures. In contexts marked by uncertainty, polycrisis, and transformation, design approaches, from systemic and participatory design to speculative and practice-based methods, are increasingly mobilized to navigate complexity, mediate between actors, and prototype alternative pathways. This book critically examines these developments, highlighting both the transformative potential of design-based approaches and the risks of their instrumentalization. Through interdisciplinary contributions and case studies from Europe and North America, it demonstrates how design can support more reflexive, inclusive, and sustainable forms of governance and management.
This volume is relevant for students, researchers, and practitioners in design, governance, management, and sustainability fields, as well as for policy-makers, consultants, and professionals seeking to engage with innovative and critical approaches to contemporary transformation processes.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
8 Tables, black and white; 26 Line drawings, black and white; 4 Halftones, black and white; 30 Illustrations, black and white
ISBN-13
978-1-040-59673-9 (9781040596739)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Andreas Metzner-Szigeth | Greta Erschbamer | Harald Pechlaner
Integrating Design in Governance and Management
Creative Approaches for the Future
Book
approx. 10/2026
1st Edition
Taylor & Francis
€191.50
Not yet published
Andreas Metzner-Szigeth | Greta Erschbamer | Harald Pechlaner
Integrating Design in Governance and Management
Creative Approaches for the Future
Book
approx. 10/2026
1st Edition
Taylor & Francis
€47.50
Not yet published
Persons
Andreas Metzner-Szigeth is Full Professor of Sociology at the Free University of Bolzano, Italy. He previously held professorships in Sustainability Science (Bochum, Germany), Philosophy (Vienna, Austria; Katowice, Poland), and Science, Technology and Society Studies (Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain), and served as Adjunct Professor of Sociology in Muenster, Germany. He began his academic career as Assistant Professor of Environmental Sociology and Philosophy of Technology at the Brandenburg University of Technology in Cottbus. His research addresses industrial innovation and technology assessment, sustainability transitions and digital transformation, risk research and futures studies. A core focus of his work lies in examining the interplay between scientific expertise, economic actors, political decision making, and public engagement.
Ingrid Kofler is Associate Professor of Sociology of Culture and Communication at the Faculty of Design and Art at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (unibz). Her research focuses on the intersection of design, sociology, borders and digital transformation, exploring topics such as the role of design in societal change, borders and imaginaries and the impact of digital technologies on creative industries.
Harald Pechlaner is Director of the Center for Advanced Studies at Eurac Research in Bolzano and a Professor of Tourism at the Catholic University of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt, where he also serves as Director of the Entrepreneurship Center. His research focuses on the sustainable development of destinations and on selected issues of global governance related to economy and politics.
Greta Erschbamer has worked at the Center for Advanced Studies of Eurac Research, where she has been a researcher since 2016 and contributed to projects exploring tourism governance, participation, and design studies in mountain regions. She holds a Master's Degree in Strategic Tourism Management from SKEMA Business School in France and a Master of Science in Tourism and Regional Planning from the Catholic University Eichstaett-Ingolstadt.
Ingrid Kofler is Associate Professor of Sociology of Culture and Communication at the Faculty of Design and Art at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (unibz). Her research focuses on the intersection of design, sociology, borders and digital transformation, exploring topics such as the role of design in societal change, borders and imaginaries and the impact of digital technologies on creative industries.
Harald Pechlaner is Director of the Center for Advanced Studies at Eurac Research in Bolzano and a Professor of Tourism at the Catholic University of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt, where he also serves as Director of the Entrepreneurship Center. His research focuses on the sustainable development of destinations and on selected issues of global governance related to economy and politics.
Greta Erschbamer has worked at the Center for Advanced Studies of Eurac Research, where she has been a researcher since 2016 and contributed to projects exploring tourism governance, participation, and design studies in mountain regions. She holds a Master's Degree in Strategic Tourism Management from SKEMA Business School in France and a Master of Science in Tourism and Regional Planning from the Catholic University Eichstaett-Ingolstadt.
Content
Introduction Part 1: Reframing Governance, Management, and Design: Conceptual, critical, and epistemological perspectives 1. On Sustainable Futures, Generative Competences, and the Nexus of Governance, Management and Design 2. Design Strategy versus Strategy Design: Leadership Perspectives in a Complex World 3. Design in, with, for and by Government: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly 4. Beyond the Technical Grid: Reclaiming Organizational Meaning through Management by Design 5. To Nest is to World: Reframing Design, Governance and Management as Ontogenetic Practice 6. The Effectiveness of Development Cooperation: What Has the Promotion of Good Governance Achieved? Part 2: Design for Eco-Social Transformation and Organizational Practice: Systemic, participatory, and practice-oriented approaches 7. Supporting Circular Economy Policies by Applying Systemic Design Tools 8. The Responsible Innovator. Reckoning the legitimacy of competing worldviews through a role-playing game 9. Designing for Transformation: The Tiny Fop Mob and the Governance of Real-World Labs 10. "Collaboration ChitChatter": Expanding design thinking to nurture the awareness of complexity and collaboration amongst a new generation of eco-social designers 11. Destination Design: New Perspectives for the Development of Touristic Destinations through Approaches and Instruments from Design Research 12. Design is an Attitude: When the Creative Discipline Takes Responsibility
Part 3: Imagining, Exploring, and Shaping Futures: Speculation, foresight, technology, and atmospheres 13. An Ambiguous Utopia: On the Interplay between Design, Speculation and the Future 14. Leveraging Scenarios for Strategic Foresight and Applied Futures Research 15. Atmospheres in tourism design 16. Perception of Tourism Atmosphere at Mine Sites: An Exploratory Empirical Analysis Utilising Virtual Reality 17. Outlook
Part 3: Imagining, Exploring, and Shaping Futures: Speculation, foresight, technology, and atmospheres 13. An Ambiguous Utopia: On the Interplay between Design, Speculation and the Future 14. Leveraging Scenarios for Strategic Foresight and Applied Futures Research 15. Atmospheres in tourism design 16. Perception of Tourism Atmosphere at Mine Sites: An Exploratory Empirical Analysis Utilising Virtual Reality 17. Outlook
