In and out of place: correspondence as a means to understand and redesign complexity

New methods are needed to understand, visualise and work around complexities of socially oriented design research and practice. This chapter reflects upon the experiences of researchers undertaking work for a research and innovation staff exchange project and makes use of a lens of critical complexity to determine scenarios that frame the project’s significant moments. The chapter discusses complexities that are related to project work in three scenarios – institution, individual and activity – and reveals how these complexities were experienced and related to in the case of the project Participatory Tools for Human Development with the Youth (PARTY). As an outcome, the chapter presents the people, objectives and methods (POM) framework, a method for identifying and understanding the challenges that complexities can present to designers as they aim to grasp what is to be – in place, out of place and in place with others.