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Institute for Social Vision Design
ISVD-LAB-003Active

Social Design Lab

Systematically mapping the intellectual foundations of social design across six academic disciplines and clarifying its distinctiveness as a methodology

Research Domain

social-design

Research Lead

Naoya Yokota

Start Date

Mar 28, 2026

Background

The 'social design' that runs through ISVD's activities is situated at the intersection of three practices: structural social analysis (identifying invisible problems), epistemological critique (asking why they remain invisible), and design practice (translating insights into concrete interventions). This lab systematically organizes the six academic traditions underlying social design — social policy, agnotology, epistemology, participatory design, EBPM, and civil society theory — drawing on 977 citations found across more than 104 existing ISVD articles, and clarifies the differences from existing design research (service design, transition design, etc.).

Foundations(18)0/4
Critique(5)0/3
Synthesis(3)0/3
Publication(1)0/3
Discourse0/3

Research Artifacts

Progress map of frameworks and deliverables for each phase. Click a slot to expand related notes.

Foundations

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Conceptual Framework

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Literature Map

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Key Concepts

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Foundation Notes

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Critique

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Case Analysis

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Critique Notes

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Synthesis

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Synthesis Framework

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Theory Notes

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Counter-Design Proposal

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Publication

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Academic Paper

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Public Report

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Discourse

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Discourse Article

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Lecture Materials

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Other Notes (27)

1
Foundations

Citation Network Analysis — The Intellectual Map Drawn by 938 References

1
Foundations

The Intellectual Coordinates of Social Design — Six Academic Roots Decoded

1
Foundations

Literature Map: From Agnotology to 'Structural Invisibility'

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Foundations

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

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Foundations

Literature Map: Social Design vs Service Design vs Transition Design

1
Foundations

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

1
Foundations

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

1
Foundations

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

1
Foundations

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

1
Foundations

The Genealogy and Critique of Design Justice

1
Foundations

The Lineage of Deliberative Democracy

1
Foundations

Institutional Design Theory and the Commons

1
Foundations

Operationalizing the Six-Field Integration Model — A Four-Stage Mapping from Theory to Practice

1
Foundations

Twenty Years of Kamiyama, Tokushima — Reading Rural Social Innovation through the Six-Field Integration Model

1
Foundations

Sixteen Years of MindLab Denmark — Reading a Government Policy Innovation Lab through the Six-Field Integration Model

1
Foundations

Comparison of Similar Labs / Research Institutions Abroad — Profiles of 7 Institutions and ISVD's Position

1
Foundations

Literature Map: The Genealogy of Social Design Evaluation — 14 Years of English-Language Scholarship and the Gap in Japanese

1
Foundations

The intersection of shrinking society and epistemic justice / Extracting structural patterns via 5-lab integration

2
Critique

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

2
Critique

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

2
Critique

What Social Design Is Not — Five Boundary Lines

2
Critique

The Limits of Nudge and Behavioral Design

2
Critique

The Boundary Between Speculative Design and Social Vision Design

3
Synthesis

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

3
Synthesis

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

3
Synthesis

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

4
Publication

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

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