The Carousel: a mutual and parallel learning approach to design for societal transformation

The interweaving of various societal challenges into polycrisis makes resolving nowadays wicked problems increasingly complex, asking for a transformation of both our design and our education practices in the Global North. In this paper, we describe why and how we are developing and researching a multi-actor educational and learning environment situated in society tailored to (address) the complexity of the polycrisis. More specifically, we elucidate the long-term study and development of the Carousel, a method to facilitate the exchange of perspectives of different actors working in parallel on different challenges. The method highlights interconnectedness and situatedness of the complexity of polycrisis by embracing dialogic and commoning. We elaborate on how the Carousel helped participants to deal with complexity and at the same time transform their own practice. Moreover, we reflect on how the underlying principles of the Carousel can be integrated in other practices to enhance the resolution of wicked problems.