Paradigm

(see other keywords defined)

1. Wikipedia summarises the word paradigm as a "set of distinct concepts or thought patterns that are used to understand and interpret the world around us.
2. It provides a framework for understanding how we think, act, and interact with others."
3. These notes give a brief overview of:
   • the derivation of the word
   • how it became applied to linguistics
   • how it became used to describe academic belief systems
   • an example drawn from innovation research
   • modern examples

1. Derivation

The word 'paradigm' can be traced back to the ancient Greek word paradeigma (παράδειγμα) which could probably be translated as supermodel. Several thousand years ago, Greece had a sophisticated trading empire in which artifacts were routinely copied within production lines. Plato (429-327BC) spoke of a hypothetically perfect structure of things that was 'beside' or somehow 'within' the imperfect, everyday appearances that we can touch and see around us in everyday life. The word 'deigma' (δειγμα) meant something that could be shown, like a production sample. A 'paradeigma' (παράδειγμα) referred to the very best version, from which product samples - and the actual products - would have been copied.

picture of a real doughnut picture of an idealised doughnut form

2. The idea of the 'paradigm' within linguistics

In the 19th and early 20th centuries the word 'paradigm' came to be used within linguistics to describe a comprehensive idea, often expressed within a parable or fable. Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913) used the word to describe a class of elements that share key attributes.

The patterns that keep grammar consistent

To clarify this idea it is useful to compare paradigms with 'syntagms', which are parts of a grammar that cannot be changed without changing the meaning. In the sentence 'I' (subject) 'punched' (verb) 'the crocodile' (object) we have a grammatical structure that permits many variations (alternative versions of the sentence) without changing the paradigm. Changing 'I' to 'she' in the above sentence would change the meaning, but not the (grammatical) paradigm.

3. Paradigms in academic culture

Newtonian paradigm led to paradigms including Chaos Theory

In the early 1960s, Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996) applied the word in a broader context when he saw that belief systems are self-sustaining cultures. Individuals, ideas and publications may change, but the cultural structures that maintain them tend to change more slowly. These structures enable dominant beliefs to sustain themselves for longer than is reasonable. Hence, particular approaches may continue to be applied long after they work effectively. This is partly because the co-dependent factors that sustain the paradigm are less affected by the bigger picture. They resist change until the new evidence becomes overwhelming. Academies are relatively closed institutions that develop consensus by seeing small bits of evidence as part of a larger logical perspective. But the politics of publication and reputation leads to vested interests in which change may be resisted unreasonably - sometimes for a generation or more. When a particular generation of academics reach retirement age at around the same time this can lead to an 'avalanche' effect. This may be called a 'paradigm change' but we should be careful to distinguish between syntagmatic and paradigmatic innovation.

4. Engineering paradigms

It took hundreds of years to reimagine the bolt as a screw

It is remarkable how the human mind can resist seeing beyond the prevailing paradigm until it gives way to another one. It is likely that Archimedes (or a near contemporary) conceived the parallel-threaded screw that we find in the modern bolt (see above). It took several thousand years before the idea of a tapered screw thread emerged. This enabled screws to penetrate wood without having to make a threaded hole first. Whether this represents a true paradigm change is open to discussion. However, the length of time between the first bolt and the first screw is symptomatic of the challenges involved in changing a paradigm.

5. Current use of the word 'paradigm'

All of the above senses of the word are resonant in the way we use it today. Hence, it can be used to refer to a pattern of thought in any given context. In terms of metadesign it should be understood as stronger than a philosophical or theoretical framework. As Albert Einstein reminded us, solutions to big problems are hard to imagine from within the mindset that produced them. If the paradigms are literally 'unthinkable', how can we work with them? Who can think beyond the possible? We need an approach that includes the design of key words and ideas that will facilitate effective change.

Examples

Mario Mazzucato (2015) lists 12 key technologies essential to the development of smartphones. Most were developed by state-funded enterprises, rather than commercial industry, per se.

1. tiny microprocessors
2. memory chips
3. solid state hard drives
4. liquid crystal displays
5. lithium-based batteries
6. Fast-Fourier-Transform algorithms
7. the internet
8. HTTP & HTML
9. Cellular networks
10. touchscreen
11. voice-activated artificial intelligence agent (Siri)

Mazzucato, M. (2015). The innovative state. Foreign Affairs, 94(1), 7-8.
Electric Cars have been around since design emerged from the industrial revolution (1880's). They are both part of a much larger paradigm. Currently, designers are specialists who are trained to catalyse the economic system of consumption. This why re-designing the car will not save us from catastrophic climate change, or from biodiversity depletion.