Summarizing emerging themes from the priming phase for CS

Overall, the initiator interviews addressed sustainability in urban planning and design — and the interplay of professions — through notions of CS initiation.

Such aspects become crucial in priming interprofessional collaboration and learning in the context of sustainability. In looking at the overall themes, the following five emerge through topics in discussions (see Table 31).

Controversial sustainability

The challenges inherent in the broad spectrum of meanings that the concept of sustainability encompasses became evident in the discussions. According to the initiator interviews, sustainability can be approached from various different angles: the question is what is considered valuable. One of the emerging themes of the interviews is the tension between economic growth and environmental sustainability. Financial value is perceived as the most common motivator in approaching contemporary activities of design and planning. Sustainability, however, has very different meanings in its three different dimensions and in relation to different time scales of assessment — for example, the short-term view on product design in comparison with building design, or doing business with sustainability and economic progress for societal development. Moreover, these dimensions and scales can have conflicts between them. While economic growth is to promote global wellbeing and equality, it is often in conflict with

sustainability interests. As a result, economic and environmental considerations can often clash. Similarly, questions on social progress and sociocultural sustainability put stress on environmental sustainability that is already compromised according to the wide scientific community.

Building capacity for sustainability dialogues

Shared dialogues for sustainability between laypeople and professionals can take place in various contexts. In CS, the idea was to promote professional dialogues between future experts, to contribute to new understanding on sustainability, and to develop professional practice. Critical thinking and the ability to involve oneself in dialogues and collaboration around sustainability were identified as crucial components. However, for any professional, skill and knowledge are also

necessary to be able to contribute to a sustainability inquiry [#2]. Also, amongst laypeople and globally, the ability to understand sustainability is seen as an outcome of certain conditions and capabilities, as “you will need the bread, you will need the security, you will need the […] living environments and all that before you can really start to talk about ecological sustainability” [#1]. As a result, a potential mistake in sustainable design and planning can also be made when things are considered “too broadly” without “knowing the sociocultural context” [#3]. For a designer facilitating collaborative dialogues on sustainability, ensuring that there are sufficient resources of both knowledge and ability is crucial.

Staging of context, setting the stage

In many ways, the initiators are setting the stage for the forthcoming CS studies in introducing various actors and content to the program preparations. These components are related to various people and projects that already existed, some reworked into new forms in CS. For the initiators, CS as a pilot for

interprofessional interaction was approached as a project in itself. From the beginning, the idea was also to emphasize such projects and encounters in CS teaching, sharing experiences and skills across the departments. On this basis, new ideas and solutions for sustainability would then emerge. However, in approaching meeting points between different professions, there are outsiders and insiders, and in approaching interprofessional sustainability. What becomes important in this process is open, reflective iteration, as it is also about “bringing the feedback to the, kind of, multi-professional context” and then “keep[ing] the process going on through new types of input depending on the kind of solutions that are emerging” [#2].

Expanding disciplinary perceptions for learning and practice

Despite the emphasis on interprofessional collaboration, the focus remains on building professional and disciplinary competence. The available skills and knowledge are what make any collaborator valuable, and for professionals this is also measured in disciplinary expertise. However, interprofessional interaction also requires understanding other disciplines and stepping outside the comfort zone. Expansive approach into collaborative inquiry is needed. In CS, collaboration in real-world projects connects various professionals in a shared practice. In approaching complex challenges of sustainability, being able to compare things, issues, and processes, and to understand different competences within the larger context, becomes crucial.

Critical, professional perceptions on sustainability

Critical thinking is mentioned as a key component in sustainability assessment and transformation [#2], but in the contemporary design practices there is a lack of it [#4]. There is an imbalance in approaching the challenges of sustainability and the way contemporary economy works. In essence, according to the discussions, both ecological and sociocultural sustainability seem to take place under economic imperatives. One can infer that if our entire social system is existing increasingly in the context of the global economy, the concept of sustainability and its three dimensions also become nested in it and understood under its terms. Critical perceptions and discussions on sustainability are needed to challenge such assumptions [#1, #2]. Again, this can be done by introducing more perspectives to the shared inquiry, expanding the understanding further.

Through interprofessional design collaboration, such perceptions can be brought forward.

Overall, in this phase, the materials in the form of disciplinary frameworks and theoretical approaches are introduced to the interaction. Based on the interviews, sustainability as a topic and context of action can be perceived in many ways as controversial, and there are many ways that different professionals approach it.

Interprofessional collaboration and knowledge-building is then identified as a key area where such a controversial and yet scientifically robust topic can be

discussed. In approaching CS, the program is perceived as a platform where future professionals and experts are invited to develop new understanding on sustainability.

A clear need for CS in general is identified, as well as its potential for Aalto University. For the interviewees as initiators of CS, the program is also portrayed as a playground, where encounters under the grand theme of sustainability can take place and new ways of working can be tried out. In CS, this becomes evident in staging the collaboration while not quite knowing what will happen and what will students become.

Table 31. Identified themes of interest in interviews I: initiators.

Theme Description Example instance(s) Controversial

“ecological sustainability has a very long time dimension, so when we are talking about it we probably refer to something relating to fifty years […] for economic sustainability, we could be thinking about business cycles in terms of […] seven to ten years” [#2] layperson) input to the inquiry. Furthermore, if there is no certainty of tomorrow, it is difficult to discuss things in the longer term.

“it's about security, and sharing of re-sources, education […] the ability to kind of engage with the shared discussions about what life should be about, and the kind of... political capabilities” [#1]

“you also have to have an understanding of the real processes that are in use currently, and that are in the opportunity space that can be created... through the combination of professions” [#2] to set the stage for aca-demic collaborators to join in and for future stu-dents to pick according to what they perceive as important.

“bring in new people, and then let them start asking questions about why do things so, what is the basic understanding be-hind this […] starting research projects, where all these elements are combined by bringing international, global perspectives into the picture through exchange stu-dents and specialists […] producing work-shops and outputs” [#2]

One main theme is also in expanding the

“recognizing how differently people with ambitions in specific professions … deal with the issues, then, that create human resources, competences, for all of the people” [#2]

“there are no textbooks available that are so multidisciplinary as this program as a whole” [#2]

“the kind of short termism... in national economics in global regulation... is the kind of problem that is most urgent” [#2]

“criticism is somehow, like, built into the designer mindset, that they think that they can listen, like all sorts of experts” [#4]

4.2. Implementing: Making the Most of the