Social Design Lab

Citation Network Analysis — The Intellectual Map Drawn by 938 References

A bibliometric analysis of 938 citations across 235 articles on the ISVD website, visualizing author, source, temporal, and disciplinary distribution patterns to reveal the intellectual structure of social design. What citations include — and what they exclude — outlines the contours of ISVD's knowledge project.

The Intellectual Coordinates of Social Design — Six Academic Roots Decoded

Where does the 'social design' at the heart of ISVD's work find its academic roots, and what does it propose that is uniquely its own? Using 977 citations as a guide, we systematically map six intellectual traditions.

Literature Map: From Agnotology to 'Structural Invisibility'

Tracing the intellectual lineage from Robert Proctor's production of ignorance, through Miranda Fricker's epistemic injustice and Linsey McGoey's strategic ignorance, to ISVD's 'Reading the Structure' methodology.

Literature Map: The Genealogy of Civil Society Theory — Tocqueville→Habermas→Putnam→Salamon→Japan's NPO Movement and ISVD's Theory of Citizens

Tracing 200 years of civil society theory from Tocqueville's associational life through Habermas's public sphere, Putnam's social capital, Salamon's comparative nonprofit research, and Japan's NPO movement, to clarify the intellectual coordinates of ISVD's model of citizens as epistemic agents.

Literature Map: Social Design vs Service Design vs Transition Design

Comparing three streams of design research — Service Design, Transition Design, and Speculative Design — with Social Design for Public Imagination. What do they share, and where do they diverge?

Literature Map: The Genealogy of EBPM — Evidence-Based Policy Making and ISVD's Data-Driven Approach

Tracing the intellectual lineage from EBM (evidence-based medicine) to EBPM (evidence-based policy making), through nudge theory, the RCT revolution, and Japan's EBPM institutionalization, to clarify the difference between ISVD's 'What is the true shape of this problem?' approach and the conventional EBPM paradigm.

Literature Map: The Lineage of Participatory Design — Arnstein → Sanders → Manzini → ISVD's Methodology

From the Ladder of Citizen Participation (1969) through Scandinavian workplace democracy, Papanek's moral critique, Sanders's co-creation spectrum, and Manzini's social innovation, to ISVD's methodological departure from 'invisible problems' rather than known needs.

Literature Map: Positioning Among Prior Institutions — Graduate School of Social Design, Rikkyo University, and ISVD

A comparative analysis of three Japanese institutions that use 'social design' or 'social vision' in their names — the Graduate School of Social Design, Rikkyo University's Graduate School of Social Design Studies, and ISVD — examining their methodologies, audiences, and intellectual lineages to clarify ISVD's distinctive position.

Literature Map: The Lineage of Social Policy — Tachibana, Kenjoh, Miyamoto, and ISVD's Intersection

Tracing the intellectual lineage from pre-war Japan's Social Policy Association through Tachibana's inequality debate, Kenjoh's political economy of redistribution, and Miyamoto's welfare regime theory to ISVD's structural analysis methodology.

The Limits and Self-Referentiality of Agnotology — Is ISVD Itself Producing 'Invisibilities'?

A discipline that analyzes the structure of ignorance cannot escape the risk of producing new ignorance. This note examines three mechanisms — selection-induced blindness, normative tension, and the transparency paradox — and explores structural responses through Bourdieu's reflexive sociology and Fricker's epistemic justice.

The Open Access Paradox — How to Reach Those Who Cannot Be Reached

Does making information 'open' mean it reaches people? The knowledge gap hypothesis, the Matthew effect, and information poverty theory reveal that equalizing access does not necessarily reduce disparities. This note examines the structural limits of the open access movement and considers intermediary models as 'translation devices.'

What Social Design Is Not — Five Boundary Lines

Defining social design by contrasting it with Service Design, activism, academic research, journalism, and think tanks. Disciplinary legitimacy begins with clear boundaries.

Methodology Note: Why Data-Driven Visualization Constitutes an Intervention Against Epistemic Injustice

From Florence Nightingale's coxcomb charts to Data Feminism, tracing the history of data visualization as an epistemological practice that 'makes the invisible visible,' and arguing why ISVD's statistical dashboards can serve as interventions against structural invisibility.

Methodology Note: 'Reading the Structure' — The Theoretical Foundations of ISVD's Three-Section Frame

Why does every ISVD article follow the sequence 'What is happening → Context and background → Reading the structure'? Drawing on six scholarly traditions — from critical discourse analysis to structuration theory — this note lays bare the methodological rationale.

Six-Field Integration Model — How Social Policy, Agnotology, Epistemology, Participatory Design, EBPM, and Civil Society Theory Intersect

The six academic fields constituting social design each pose distinct questions, yet they can be integrated through three conceptual devices: wicked problems, Mode 2 knowledge production, and boundary objects. This note presents the integration architecture.

Social Design Manifesto — Democratizing Vision So Everyone Can Shape the Future

A declaration of seven principles for social design. Read invisible structures, place data in citizens' hands, translate academic knowledge, entrust judgment to the people, commit to openness, stand at the intersection of disciplines, and refuse to monopolize vision.