Reflexive Interactive Design and its Application in a Project on Sustainable Dairy Husbandry Systems

Abstract: Sustainable development in modern animal husbandry has to deal with multiple challenges, like its environmental foot print, the welfare of animals, labour issues and economical rentability. If solved separately, they might very well contradict each other. To circumvent this, structural change of our production and consumption systems is required. This cannot be attained by mere technical innovation alone, but asks for a reorientation of the existing sociotechnical regime, that shapes current practice. In this paper we present Reflexive Interactive Design (RIO) as a systematic approach to do this, and show its application in an ongoing project to deliver designs for sustainable dairy production, and to contribute to the effective reformation of the current dairy production system. RIO aims to increase the chance of structural change in existing systems, necessary to solve a number of sustainability issues at the same time. RIO is built upon three pillars: 1. systematic reflexion on the current structural arrangements of the system and the needs of key actors involved (system analysis). 2. designing new systems or structural arrangements using a systematic design approach (structured design), and; 3. strategically using concepts and reflexions to attain effective reformism (anticipation on existing structures). We describe the application of RIO in a project running since 2007 aimed at the development o