Systemic design and social marginalization – Mapping and assessment of projects for the empowerment of people experiencing social exclusion

The aim of the work is to provide a tool to map and assess projects addressing the issues of social marginalization, while considering them in their inner and exterior complexity. This means analysing both the whole project and the main users (marginalised people), as well as: the project’s impact on the community; the full spectrum of motivations behind its development; the long-term possibilities it generates for users; its capability to gather resources needed on the local territory while creating value on the same territory. Recognizing the complexity of a social issue is the basis of any design process and of this work too: giving simple answers to complex problems, while apparently being effective on the short term, could only increase the complexity and wickedness of the problem itself on the long term.