Scaffolding transition pathways : integrating SES resilience as a dialogic tool for community-based co-design

Abstract

This paper addresses a challenge for Transition Design (TD): how to make long-term, systemic frameworks tangible and actionable in small-scale, community-led practice. We introduce and evaluate the preliminary results of a methodological framework that scaffolds TD backcasting with seven principles of Social-Ecological Systems (SES) resilience for urban gardens. Grounded in a community garden case study in Shanghai, we analyse data from semi-structured interviews and a co-design workshop to evaluate this method in practice. Our findings reveal that this method functions as a dialogic tool, enabling participants to diagnose systemic issues, negotiate trade-offs, and co-create near-term actions with a longer-term vision. The paper provides a critical analysis of the new tool, including its differential effectiveness during visioning versus action planning and presents a theoretical framework for further replication and iteration. Ultimately, this research aims to contribute a theoretically-grounded and empirically-tested method for structuring co-design processes aimed at fostering community-led sustainable transitions.