Design Innovation Management

The module focuses on developing understanding of foundational concepts from cultural studies, contemporary debates on design and culture, identity, gender and feminist studies relevant to strategic design. Key theoretical concepts of 'identity', 'socialisation' and 'representation' will be introduced through lectures and seminars in order to explore the complex interrelationships between identity, sociocultural contexts and strategic design.

The aim of this module is to equip you with knowledge of and competence with creative methods and practical skills for design as a future-making practice. We will develop your design skills to support critically conceptualisation and creative communication future scenarios relevant to contemporary sustainability discourses. The module will introduce you to different theories for thinking about the future including utopian and dystopian thought.

By familiarising you with practical design methods for creating immersive environments based on future narratives, and scenarios we will explore how design can be a strategic means of considering future sustainability issues.

By the end of this module you will have the skills and competences to engage in a range of professional contexts by using your design future-making skills. 

The aim of this module is to enhance student's ability to use design approaches and tools for identifying and implementing human centered innovation opportunities. 

The aims of this module are to equip students with an in depth knowledge of the innovation process, its importance to the economy and an understanding of the factors affecting its success.

The aim of this module is to develop students¿ knowledge and skills to understand, analyse and evaluate how design for the service economy acts as a strategic tool to foster change and innovation in organisations.

Students will examine forensic case studies from an organisational perspective, from private, public and third sectors and across different domains of innovation (for ex. digital, sustainability and customer-centricity), to understand how and to what extent does design for the service economy get adopted to enable innovation?

Theories of organisational logics, institutional logics, organisational change, design for services, service -dominant logic, and theories of leadership will be utilised throughout the module and the students will engage in application of these theories and concepts.

The relationship between humans and our changing environments presents one of the most pressing questions of our time. In this course, we will approach ecologies from a design standpoint, taking it as the study of the interdependent relationships between living and non-living entities, as well as their social, cultural, political, and environmental contexts.

The aim of the course is to equip students with knowledge and understanding of the relationship between design and ecology, the varied ways in which this is conceptualised, and what this means for social design practices in pursuit of ecological value systems.

Taking the latest developments in ecological debates as our points of departure, we will explore the systems of thought underpinning this relationship. This will include exploring recently popularised design concepts and practices spanning 'planetary design', and 'pluriversal design', to less prominent ideas of 'design for ecological democracy', 'designing the commons', and more. By developing creative outcomes informed by critical thinking, the intention is to bring a strong evaluative and interdisciplinary approach to the formulation of design responses to some of today's most urgent challenges, including climate change and biodiversity loss.

The aim of this module is to examine media representations of social identities with particular focus on gender, race, class and sexuality and its intersections. Combining key theories from critical theory, cultural studies, film, gender studies and communication studies, the module will explore processes and practices of production and re-production of social identities making emphasis on said productions on media, paying special attention to questions of racism, colonialism and capitalism.

The aim of Design Research module is to help students to gain a broad understanding of design research history and methodologies and equip them with skills and competencies to undertake research in their chosen topic of enquiry. Underpinned by reflective mindset, this module sets out to support students in four key ways: position design research in relation to historical context, identify the key issues and methodologies appropriate for design research, understand ways to evaluate these resources in relation to theory and self, develop and practice applying design research resources in a pilot study.

The aims of this module are to:

• Provide students with an opportunity to be exposed to project-based teamwork in diverse settings (understood in this context as involving a range of multidisciplinary, multicultural and demographic elements in differing configurations), aiming to strengthen their cooperative and collaborative working skills and competence, while raising awareness and appreciation of diversity itself.
• Provide students with hands on experience of identifying, framing and resolving practice oriented and real-world based challenges and problems, using creativity, critical enquiry and appropriate tools to achieve valuable and relevant solutions.
• Support the development of students' ability to engage in critical enquiry and individual reflection, as well as to apply individual strengths and skills, building on their own educational backgrounds.
• Provide students with opportunities for networking with stakeholders, organisations and corporations, aiming to enhance the competence and skills needed to connect to relevant parties and build up future professional opportunities.

The module aim is to prepare students to understand the key concepts and complexities of designing for user experience. The course focuses on innovation management and the creation of value in use as a means of customer acquisition and retention.
Students will be introduced the foundational concepts of human experience relevant to design innovation, building on interdisciplinary knowledge and principles from sociology, psychology, cognitive science and human-centred design. Theoretical concepts on cognition, perception, aesthetics and interaction will be presented through lectures and seminars to explore the complex interrelationships between usability, usefulness and desirability as experiential dimensions for value creation and decision-making, and understand their role in the development of meaningful innovation and quality user experiences.
Through research, analysis, visualisation students will engage with illustrative case studies to reflect upon how theories and concepts apply in practice, and understand how experience ecosystems function.

The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and the Changing World Order aims to introduce students to the way the rise of the BRICS at the turn of the 21st century has come to challenge the Western-led order in world politics. The module will focus on each of the five BRICS countries and investigate how the evolution of their domestic and foreign policies has influenced their rise in world politics.

An emphasis will be put on foreign policy and diplomacy, together with the tools, capabilities or resources employed by the BRICS in order to project their power in world politics. Simultaneously, the module will engage with different interpretations of power in world politics, drawing on various theories of international relations. This allows the module to probe into the role of the rise of the BRICS in influencing power shifts in world politics. In broader terms the module evaluates various policy consequences of emerging power shifts and the (potential) responses of the BRICS and the West.

The aim of this module is to interrogate various permutations of violence, from physical to structural and symbolic, in several political contexts stretching a spectrum  from open war and conflict to the everyday. It aims to do so through the explicitly transdisciplinary objective of bringing scholarly and practitioner debates in security, conflict and peace-building studies to bear on debates in development and sustainability, and vice versa.

In doing so, throughout the module, students will be encouraged to think through and analyse contemporary global problematics, policy problems and cases across disciplinary divides; and through a critical re-thinking and examination of the development-security-sustainability nexus via a unique lens of political violence. The module aims to achieve the latter via explorations of several competing or complementary conceptions of violence drawn from Political Thought and Political Philosophy from both Western traditions and those in the Global South. These are then put to use to explicate contemporary problems and cases in the nexus of development-security-sustainability.

This module introduces theories and approaches to practice in communication, development and social change to critically explore the role of media and communication in a globalized and changing world. Dominant ideas about international development will be explored. Students will engage with the experiences of people from the Global South, and will explore broader debates on media, communication and social change.

The aims of this module are to:

• Familiarise students with key concepts in sociology and the sociological study of work and employment
• Provide a historical and comparative perspective on the development of work and labour markets since the industrial revolution
• Explore the various economic, political and cultural forces shaping the organization of work and labour markets
• Understand the factors contributing to job quality.

The aim of the module is to introduce students to the range of techniques and strategies for managing people and teams within the context of the construction sector, and to provide students with the opportunity to apply this knowledge within individual and team-based exercises as well as an outdoor management course.

The module is a unique combination of developing and deepening students understanding of their own management competencies, theoretical grasp of theory (leadership, teamwork, motivation, power and communication) and a fantastic opportunity to engage in experiential learning over three very challenging, problem solving days within an outdoor environment. Developing and then combining knowledge of management competencies, theory and practice with the opportunity to experience and self-reflect upon their connections is unique within this module.

The Service Design Strategy module aims to provide students with professional skills for working in service design innovation teams. It aims to allow students to gain experience in managing complex service innovation processes and working successfully within the area of Service Design Strategy.

The aim of this module is to provide students with an understanding of the impact of climate change and environmental degradation on sports performance and business at the community, elite, and pro levels. Using contemporary examples from varied geographic contexts, the module will explore how sport can identify, interpret, and adapt to mounting climate challenges such as extreme heat conditions and natural disasters. In the second half of the course, the focus will shift from climate impacts and adaptation to the ways sport organisations and sportspeople can reduce emissions and sport's sizeable impact on the natural environment. In doing so, the module aims to promote a critical, evidence-based understanding of the interplay between sport and the natural environment.

The aims of this module are to give the student the opportunity to study a subject, business problem or research question in depth and to research the issues surrounding the subject or background to the problem.

The module will equip the student with the relevant skills, knowledge and understanding to embark on their individual research project and they will be guided through the three options available to them to complete their dissertation:

• A desk based research project that could be set by an organisation or could be a subject of the student's choice
• A project that involves collection of primary data from within an organisation or based on lab and/or field experiments
• A full professional placement within an organisation during which time they will complete a project as part of their role in agreement with the organisation (subject to a suitable placement position being obtained)

Students will achieve a high level of understanding in the subject area and produce a written thesis or project report which will discuss this research in depth and with rigour.

The aims of this module are to give the student the opportunity to study a subject, business problem or research question in depth and to research the issues surrounding the subject or background to the problem.

The module will equip the student with the relevant skills, knowledge and understanding to embark on their individual research project and they will be guided through the three options available to them to complete their dissertation:

• A desk based research project that could be set by an organisation or could be a subject of the student's choice
• A project that involves collection of primary data from within an organisation or based on lab and/or field experiments
• A full professional placement within an organisation during which time they will complete a project as part of their role in agreement with the organisation (subject to a suitable placement position being obtained)

Students will achieve a high level of understanding in the subject area and produce a written thesis or project report which will discuss this research in depth and with rigour.