The Expansive Design thesis was crafted on the historical analysis methods used in Cultural Historical Activity Theory (Engeström) and Production of Space Theory (Lefebvre). This page explains in detail how data was collected and analyzed. The open data is publicly available for browsing.
Historical analysis in the production of space is called regressive-progressive (Lefebvre, 1991; Stanek, 2011). In order to understand the multiple determinations of the present, it is necessary to go back to the past (regression), understand how contradictions originated and accumulated over time, and come back to analyze the present again with a richer understanding of its multiple determinations. In the return moment (progression), the potential for further development becomes clearer together with the conditions that prevented what could have been made into the present — the alternative presents. “For how could we come to understand a genesis, the genesis of the present, along with the preconditions and processes involved, other than by starting from that present, working our way back to the past and then retracing our steps?” (Lefebvre, 1991, p. 66)
The historical analysis method from activity theory is similar to the regressive-progressive, but there are three distinguished research strands: object-historical, theory-historical, and actual empirical (Engeström, 2015). The goal is to reconstruct a certain object through the available propositions and findings about the object, tracking how the object is theorized across history, and how it is being transformed right now in practice. The object-historical analysis focus on the quest of architecture and design practice to grasp what is happening and what is going to happen with their products. The theory-historical analysis discusses how theories expanded their scope to include activity as an essential element of design and architecture. Finally, the actual-empirical analysis collects evidence of this expansion from the involvement of the author with architectural design projects. These three strands are applied to work out the data collected from scientific articles, books, and fieldwork. The result is a systemic understanding of design activity and design space, highlighting its inner contradictions.
The Expansive Design thesis applies the regressive-progressive over the three aforementioned strands. The historical reconstruction of the object already presupposes the regressive moment; however, since the investigation aims to describe and change the practice analyzed, the progressive moment is equally important. On the way back to the present, the object is confronted with its possibilities for expansion through alternative development courses. In this way, it is expected to grasp what else the object could be in the present and why it is not like that yet.
| Object-historical | Theory-historical | Actual-empirical | |
| Definition according to Engeström (2015) | “Identifying and analyzing the successive developmental phases of the activity system. “ | “Analysis of the development of the theories introduced into the central activity and eventually of the instrument-producing activities behind those theories.” | “Analysis of the internalized and invented models professed and actually used or upheld by the participants of the activity.” |
| Regressive moment | Identify the object; trace its transformations; reconstruct the activity around the object. | Disentangle theories and models used in practice; identify the historical contradictions related to them. | Model and describe the specific activity studied; evaluate these models based on the historical analyses. |
| Progressive moment | Identify changes in motivation towards the object. Anticipate the object’s next transformations. | Find promising theories and models that can shed a new light into existing contradictions and support the object’s expansion. | Remodel activity and prototype instruments; simulate or try the new configuration. |
Data generation
In such a dialectical-materialistic perspective over reality, data cannot be approached as a neutral material waiting to be collected. Data must be socially produced and generated before it can be collected. This perspective suits design research, particularly generative research such as co-design and participatory design.
The Expansive Design thesis employs the formative intervention and double-stimulation experimental method for data generation. The experiments were conducted in two different settings: as part of formative interventions in professional projects and as part of educational projects for design education. The double stimulation experiments were collaborative design workshops in professional projects where low-tech visualizations and design games were developed to deal with contradictions. Some of these tools were developed and tested in further educational projects, where the double stimulation experiments took the shape of hands-on sessions.
Data collection
The data collected is primarily qualitative, stored in formats such as documents, photos, audio, and video recordings collected throughout formative interventions. Each step of an intervention — online communication, interview, meeting, or workshop — is represented as a graphical map with interlinked nodes in an Issue-Based Information System (IBIS) (Kunz & Rittel, 1970; Selvin et al., 2001).
Each map could contain several maps. This nested structure provided a sense of depth while conserving the breadth of a graphical map. Such a system was chosen by its capacity to store and connect data in both strands of research: object-historical, theory-historical, and actual-empirical.
The object-historical data consists of the notes that contribute to defining the object of research, such as concept sketches, outlines, and classifications. They were made mainly before writing project proposals, articles, and this thesis. The notes try to grasp the object while it is expanding in the research context, as a result of confronting theory-historical data with actual-empirical data. The object-historical strand plays a mediating role between the two other strands.
The theory-historical data consists of published articles and books about the topic. One article typically has a handful of interlinked notes in the system and it is connected to other articles that share a topic. The main theoretical concepts were extracted as individual notes and related to each other in a graphical connection. The streams followed in literature review produced different maps of interlinked notes.
The actual-empirical data consists mainly of notes transcribed from a pencil-and-paper notebook carried during the interventions in design projects. The project interventions are framed as case studies (Yin, 2009). Data was collected through observations, interviews, meetings, workshops, and experiments. It was primarily qualitative, stored in formats such as documents, photos, audio and video recordings. Each step of an intervention — online communication, interview, meeting, or workshop — was represented as a graphical map in the IBIS. The criterion for connecting notes was quite loose; it just defines that there was a relationship between the notes without stating the nature of this relationship. A large part of notes were added later based on the rehearsing of audio and video recordings of the interventions.
Data analysis
The graphical maps served as an intermediate step in the research process, being often consulted and updated, but never fully formalized. The graphical maps connected the concepts proposed by theories, the concepts adopted by practitioners and the concepts developed during the interventions, providing an on-going visualization of the investigation. They were mainly used for keeping up with the big picture while analysing data in the three research strands. The visual feedback of comparing the maps was essential to understand the data itself.
For example, the maps created for the main works in cultural historical activity theory in comparison to the equivalent to the production of space theory reveal a big difference between a philosophical treatise — many concepts are raised and connected to each other in the making of a comprehensive world view…
… and a PhD thesis —a smaller amount of concepts are connected to favor a deeper understanding of a specific phenomenon.
With the purpose of clarifying how this analysis was performed across time, the notes were organized in chronological and methodological order in the image below (made by importing the IBIS data into Gephi). The chronological order roughly matches the data collection activity, what should not be mistaken by the data-analysis itself. The data analysis is better characterized by the connections that cut across the chronological periods. The image shows the effort of developing the strands in relation to each other as an effort to tie the development of the strands together, to keep the research oriented to wholes, not just parts.
Writing the thesis and its inner chapters is also part of data analysis. In the text, the strands are laid down and intertwined. That means each section devotes as much space to object description, theoretical discussion, and empirical analysis. The concepts and theories are part of the data collected in the fieldwork. In fact, the fieldwork was influenced by these concepts and theories, not just within the researcher’s actions but also within the participants’ actions, who were well aware of some of the ideas and theories discussed here. In this way, the Marxist praxis of keeping theory and practice together was preserved and attained (Marx, 1993).
References
Engeström, Y. (2015). Learning by expanding. An activity-theoretical approach to developmental research (Second.). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Kunz, W., & Rittel, H. W. J. (1970). Issues as elements of information systems (No. 131). Berkeley, Calif.
Lefebvre, H. (1991). The production of space. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Marx, K. (1993). Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy (Penguin Classics).
Selvin, A., Buckingham Shum, S., Seirhuis, M., Conklin, J., Zimmerman, B., Charles, P., … Li, G. (2001). Compendium: making meetings into knowledge events. In Knowledge Technologies 2001 (pp. 4–7). Texas, USA.
Stanek, Ł. (2011). Henri Lefebvre on Space: Architecture, Urban Research, and the Production of Theory. Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.
Yin, R. (2009). Case study research: Design and methods. Sage publications.
