The Pink Initiative

The goal of The Pink Initiative is to set up transformative ecosystems through Transformation Partnerships (more information about Transformation Partnerships can be found on this website).

A transformative ecosystem is a community of actors and artifacts (infrastructure, technologies, etc.) which interacts as a system capable to address societal challenges. With the tools and methodologies provided by the Pink Initiative, multistakeholders communities learn practices of transformation, become skilled in navigating nowadays complexities, learn how to design new and sustainable ways of thinking, working and living together.

The Pink Initiative works with three main elements to establish these transformative ecosystems:
1. A place: local and regional, social, cultural and industrial context; A physical place where people can work, meet, sit and network; facilities where design & prototyping activities can be carried out;
2. Life-Long Skilling: educational activities/formats related to Transformation in collaboration with RISE Professional Education, with Umeå University and the Eindhoven University of Technology;
3. Methodologies and Tools to support the creation of Transformative Ecosystems.

The Pink Initiative promotes activities in design, research and collaboration. Here design is used as a catalysing force to prototype instances of transformations in relevant contexts. Research is conducted to build a body of knowledge and to develop and test tools that are used in educational or collaborative activities. Lastly, collaboration is aiming to create value in a participated way.

One example of a format that combines the different perspectives adopted within the Pink project is Pink Perception, an event where 170 persons participated to 7 parallel workshops at Scharinska Villan, producing protoypes for futures regarding, for instance, AI, sustainable food and the future of mobility.

The outcomes of this project in the region of Umeå are the following:

The Pink has created a local RISE offer, formed of:

• Workshops on designerly ways of going about societal transformations
• Programs for boosting innovation capacity of industry and public sector
• Workshops about organisational changes
• Curating design research project
• Readiness for Change assessment workshops
• Inspiration Lectures & Educational Lectures
• Networking with local people, SME’s & companies
• Curating alternative networking, multistakeholders activities
• 3D printing workshops

The Pink has developed the format of Transformation Partnerships, applicable where a complex constellation of stakeholders seek support in designing a sustainable transformation, starting from a societal challenge. The methodological framework at the foundation of Transformation Partnerships is Transforming Practices to Design for Systemic Transformation.