Emma Dewberry
I joined the OU's Design Group in February 2008 as a Senior Lecturer in Design Ecology. I believe design has an important role to play in creating sustainable futures. Thoughts and actions for creating sustainability will require us to: see things from different perspectives; be challenged and to accept uncertainty; and develop insight to see how small steps link to a changing whole. This is an exciting and expanding area in - and outside - design; and it is one that I am passionate about.
Email: e.l.dewberry@open.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1908 332940
Fax: +44 (0)1908 654052
Room: N2057, Venables building
Selected Publications
Dewberry E. L. (forthcoming), Eco-intelligence: Designing for the real world in Design and Designing: A Critical Introduction, Edited by Steve Garner and Chris Evans: Berg, London
Dewberry E. L. and J. H.Johnson, Design interventions, prediction and science in the sustainable transition of large, complex systems, The 2nd International Conference on Design Engineering and Science (ICDES2010), November 17-19, 2010, Tokyo, Japan.
Dewberry E. L. and M. Monteiro de Barros (2009), Exploring the need for more radical sustainable innovation: what does it look like and why?, International Journal of Sustainable Engineering, Vol. 2, No. 1, March: 28–39
Bhamra, T. and E. L. Dewberry, The implementation of sustainable design teaching and learning in UK tertiary education, ICED 16th International Conference on Engineering Design, Design for Society – Innovation, Sustainability, Knowledge, Paris, 2007
Dewberry E L & M Monteiro De Barros, The Need For Different Dialogues In Design, WonderGround - 2006 Design Research Society 3rd International Conference - Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal. 1-4 November, 2006
Dewberry E L & M Monteiro De Barros, Dialogues on Design for Sustainability: Animating different strategies and outputs, Sustainable Innovation 06 -Global challenges, issues and solutions -11th International Conference, Stuart Graduate School of Business, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, 23rd– 24th October 2006.
Dewberry, E. L., Factor 10: the changing landscape of learning, Third International Conference on Design and Manufacture for Sustainable Development, Loughborough University, 1st and 2nd September, 2004
Oliver, N., Dostaler, I. and Dewberry, E. L., (2004) New product development benchmarks: The Japanese, North American, and UK consumer electronics industries, Journal of High Technology Management Research, Vol 15; No. 2, pp 249-26
Dewberry, E. L., (2003) Designing Out Crime: insights from ecodesign, Security Journal, Vol. 16 No.1, pp 51-62, January
Dewberry, E. L., and Sherwin C. (2002) Visioning Sustainability through Design, Greener Management International, No. 37, pp 125-138. Spring
Fletcher, K. & Dewberry, E. L., (2002) demi: A framework for sustainable education, International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 3, No.1, pp 38-47
Fletcher, K., Dewberry, E. & Goggin, P. (2001) Sustainable Consumption by Design in M. Cohen & J. Murphy (eds) Exploring Sustainable Consumption: Conceptual Issues and Policy Perspectives: Elseviar
Research Projects
Co-Investigator EPSRC IDEAS FACTORY - Achieving Adapable Assets: Sustainable Integrated Infrastructure [2011-2013] SHOCK (NOT) HORROR: mediating radical transformations in infrastructure provision. Total funding awarded £326,000. The research proposes that system shocks constitute opportunities to radically ‘shift minds’ by reevaluating the relationship between demand and provision of infrastructure. Shocks provide drivers to re-imagining the scale of resource use, particularly in terms of delivering core utilities, as we move into an era of resource scarcity. The SHOCK (NOT) HORROR project uniquely unpicks the potential for radical change through the allegory of medical trauma to challenge infrastructure stakeholders to move out of their comfort zone, challenge the current organization of infrastructure in silos, rethink the nature of shocks and devise new and transformative ways of thinking about infrastructure.
Principal Investigator EPSRC Collaborating for Success through People Research Programme [2007-2008]; Exploring eco-literacy and its relevance in realizing far-reaching sustainable innovation [EP/F013116/1]. Total funding awarded £24,299
Principal Investigator EPSRC Responsive Mode [2005-2008]; Design Dialogues: An exploratory study of design narratives, methodologies and tools towards achieving Factor 10 outcomes [GR/S90645/01]. Total funding awarded £115,575
Core Contributor DEFRA Waste and Resources Research Programme [2006-2008]; P.I. Dr M Cook (Cranfield University), Achieving household waste prevention and promoting sustainable resource use through Result Orientated Product Service Systems [WRT129]. Total funding awarded £190,560.
Research Interests
The Relationship between Design and Ecology, Ecologies of Design, Creating Sustainability; Education for Sustainability; EcoLiteracy; Individual and Organisational Ethics; Sustainable Innovation and leadership; Sustainable Production and Consumption; Product, Service Systems; Strategic Design Thinking; Alternative Technologies and Materials.
I am the MCT coordinator for the OU's Creative Climate Project, Directed by Dr Joe Smith in Geography.
I am a member of the OU's Sustainable Technologies Group and the OU's Ethics Centre
Doctoral Supervision
Ana Faria, Department of Communication and Systems, MCT, The Open University [2008 - present]
Margarida Monteiro de Barros , Department of Design and Technology, Loughborough University [submitted 2011]
Ann Thorpe, Department of Design, Development, Environment and Materials, MCT, The Open University [awarded Doctorate 2010]
I am always interested to hear from people who would like to undertake doctoral research. I am currently exploring the following areas and would welcome conversations on these or related topics.
1. Developing an ecology of design
Growing a deeper ecological intelligence in design is perhaps one response to delivering good processes and solutions in a changing and challenged global market. This research explores the need for, and nature of, new (design) wisdoms for industry and society in a context of ecological limits
2. Designing adaptive capacity across infrastructures
We need to re-imagine, re-evaluate and reassess peoples’ resource needs and evoke new expectations in the context of resource scarcity. Deeply knowing the relationship between, and in, infrastructures will prompt the design of more impactful interventions that encourage longer time horizons for equitable resource management.
3. The role of the civic university in building transformative learning capacity
Sustainable futures will rely on the capacity of people to adapt. The research investigates the design of learning programmes that can effectively respond to uncertain and complex contexts while simultaneously delivering practical knowledge, processes and skills.
Learning and Teaching
My focus at the OU is to contribute to all levels of learning provision in design and related subjects. I am particularly interested in exploring sustainable pedagogy; different ways of knowing and learning. I believe there is great kinship between the processes within design thinking and the more holistic, trans-disciplinary, problem reframing perspectives required for creating new types of literacy and action that foster human and ecological well-being.
I am currently a course team member for the re-write of T307 - Innovation: designing for a sustainable future . I also mentor and sit on the examination board for the existing course
I was a course team member for the award-winning U101, an innovative first level programme in Design Thinking and sit on the examination board for this course.
I am a member of the course team for T450, The Enginnering project and sit on the examination board for the existing course.
I am the external examiner for the MA in Sustainable Design at Brighton University and the MSC in Energy and Industrial Sustainability at DeMonfort University in Leicester.
I have taught Design for Sustainability for over a decade in many instituions at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, in small and large groups, engaging in different pedagogical approaches. I Co-Directed the BA (Hons) Ecodesign at Goldsmiths College, University of London [1998-2001] and was the Course Director for the MSc Design for Sustainability at Cranfield University [2003-2006].
Brief CV
2006 - 2008 Senior Lecturer in Design for Sustainability - Department of Design and Technology, Loughborough University
2001 - 2006 Research Fellow, Lecturer and Course Director MSc Design for Sustainability - International Ecotechnology Research Centre, School of Industrial Manufacturing Sciences [now School of Applied Sciences], Cranfield University
1998 - 2001 Research Associate & Lecturer in EcoDesign - Design Department, Goldsmiths College, University of London
1996 - 1998 Post-Doctoral Research Associate - Judge Institute fo Management Studies, Cambridge University
1992 - 1996 PhD Ecodesign - Department of Design and Innovation, Technology Faculty, The Open University
1991 - 1992 Furniture Designer - Modulus, Shah Alam, Malyasia
1987 - 1991 BSc (Hons) Industrial Design [Technology] - Napier Polytechnic, Edinburgh
Fellow of Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (FRSA)
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
Visting Fellow in the Department of Design and Technology, Loughborough University
Member of the Sustainable Design Research Group Department of Design and Technology, Loughborough University
Page Last Updated: 13 June, 2011