Loops of Change

Abstract

The loop is a powerful form, both in symbolic an in functional terms, which is reflected into a myriad of different applications, from religious and mystic symbologies such as the ouroboros to corporate branding and design such as Apple’s Infinite loop. To respond to loSquaderno's invitation to write about the concept of loop, I chose to look at it from the perspective of participatory planning, which is currently the field where I have the opportunity to apply concretely most of the competences I aquired through my eclectic career. Tesserae is the organisation that I co-founded with Laura Colini in 2011 with the goal of combining the academic background and the capacity gained as experts for European policy programmes along with the experience as artists and activists investigating and questioning transforming cities. Within its general scope, a core ambition of the organisation has become the systematisation and integration of a large collection of tools and methods deriving from diverse approaches and needs into a comprehensive toolkit for participatory practice. This led to the elaboration of the wide purpose conceptual framework for analysing and designing transformative processes that we heve called “framework for change” (F4C). This model visualises the fields, variables and activities required to produce a desired change through a process of cocreation. The elements of the process can be seen as an array of discrete components, analysed independently, which are often assigned as specific responsibilties to different stakeholders in the process; nevertheless, what makes the quality and capacity of the process to achieve positive impacts is the relation among the parts, their correct consequentiality, complementarity and integration. In this article I want to argue that the loop shape is the essential pattern to arrange the elements of the process in an effective and functional relation, and provides, both for organisation and communication purposes, a key source of inspiration to enhance positive change throughout complex multistakeholder projects. In the following, using the loop as a guiding shape for my reasoning, I will firstly briefly introduce a theory of change and illustrate the terms of the process design that it calls for; secondly I will present the Frame4Change scheme created by Tesserae as a tool for visualising transformative process; third, I will develop some reflections on the establishment of recursive cycles (loops) as ideal arrangement of the different actions needed to achieve the desired change.