Emerging Systemic Turn in Service Design

This chapter explores the emerging turn in service design research and the education paradigm. There is a higher recognition of addressing the systems and complexities of services. The data were collected through a literature review, a workshop at the Service Design and Innovation (Servdes) Conference in 2023, and expert interviews. This thematic analysis shows that service design thinking has expanded in complexity, thus including different or sometimes even divergent directions. Having a broad spectrum of skills makes it possible for service designers to operate as agents in the design system and analyse it holistically. From a systemic view, service design can be investigated as a design system. This helps us understand how to develop design education, and the interviews shed light on this. Positionality can also help in analysing different systemic stances that are complex and plural. This complexity creates pressure for education to keep up with the speed of transformation and change.