Michael Johnson

Design Ecosystem Fellow 2022-23

Dr Michael Pierre Johnson is a design researcher in the creative economy who applies design-led mapping and modelling methods as part of strategic and participatory engagement in regional, sectoral and sustainable development. His research centres on making the effects, viability and value of creative interdisciplinarity more explicit within complex collaborative contexts.

Research Overview

This Design Ecosystem Fellowship, awarded £19,600 and delivered between July 2022 and Feb 2023, focused on mapping the emerging role of participatory design in Glasgow’s sustainable development. Glasgow hosted COP26 in November 2021, which stimulated support for net zero and nature-based enterprise (NBE) initiatives in the city’s local enterprise eco-system across private, public and third sector projects and collaborations. The enquiry focus for such an ecosystem mapping was to capture not just the role of participatory design work, but how value was created, developed and distributed throughout such networks in relation to sustainable development targets and outcomes. 

Read the full report: A Co-Creative Climate