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This case study has a slightly different format to the others in the SEE Library, as it is drawn from the second SEE Policy Booklet - Realising Sustainability and Innovation through Design: Making it Happen in Communities, Industry, Public Sector & Policy-Making (May 2010).

Continuously improving the policy-making process requires us to build on past experience and to supplement it with new techniques and methodologies. If policy teams are seeking wider input, more informed policy and more creative dynamism, creative industry experts and design processes appear to be the mechanisms for realising innovation in policy-making. Design methodologies in policy-making could effectively align the ever-expanding nature of sustainability and innovation by facilitating interaction between diverse players.

In northern Sweden the mining industry continues to expand, but in the municipality of Gellivare the ground is collapsing underneath the city. Displacement can have an enormous impact on societies and regional economies, so the policy course for relocation needed to consider all the options. In this instance the design community rallied around the issue, looking at socially responsible design methods to find a solution to moving the inhabitants. The project City Move Interdesign was launched in partnership with the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID), the Swedish Industrial Design Foundation (SVID) and the community of Gellivare and a workshop was held in March 2009. The City Move Interdesign workshop brought together the expertise of industrial designers, architects, landscape architects, social scientists, city planners, engineers, environmental specialists, artists, psychologists, students and community members in a creative process to present proposals that responded to the diverse needs of the population. Following this workshop, the municipal authority of Gellivare formally decided to implement the planning project ‘New Gellivare’ to relocate the city. The workshop was integral in this decision for two reasons. First, by presenting a vast number of potential solutions, it became evident that the options were not limited to those initially envisaged by the municipal authorities. Second, as a result of stressing the need for closer collaboration between the municipal authorities, the local mining company (LKAB) and other stakeholders, the project will be co-financed by the municipal authority and the LKAB. The LKAB will also be the main sponsor of the world cup ski games in Gellivare in 2012. The City Move Interdesign workshop used design techniques to engage a broad spectrum of stakeholders, which resulted in a more creative, citizen-orientated policy solution. 

 Sports arena in Gellivare, venue for Move City workshop

For more information visit: www.svid.se/citymove/ or: www.icsid.org/news/year/2010_news/articles962.htm

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