Bloomsbury Handbook of Service Design

Drawing on a diverse array of service and design related thinkers and practitioners, this volume is a timely and critical review of the themes and intersecting disciplines that are questioning and opening up the field towards plural perspectives, showing its complexity, exposing its challenges and offering practical examples and directions.

With the growing popularity of service design both in industry and academia, The Bloomsbury Handbook of Service Design examines the discipline’s core principles to develop our understanding of the context, role and impact of this practice. The editors bring together multiple voices from around the world to share experiences and perspectives on how service design interacts with global topics such as climate, social justice and racial issues, and looks at directions for the future.

Organised into five distinct sections, chapters explore a variety of key topics within the world of service design, including Plural Service & Design Cosmologies, A Critical Agenda for Service Design, Contextualising Services, Systems and Change, Developing Service Design Practices and Approaches, and Building Futures

Lara Penin is Professor of Transdisciplinary Design at Parsons School of Design, USA. She is a co-founder of the Parsons DESIS Lab research laboratory, a former director of the Transdisciplinary Design graduate program and a co-lead of the Graduate Minor in Civic Service Design. Lara is the author of An Introduction to Service Design: Designing the Invisible (Bloomsbury, 2018), and editor of The Disobedience of Design Gui Bonsiepe (Bloomsbury, 2021).

Alison Prendiville is Professor of Service Design at LCC University of the Arts London, UK. Her work is transdisciplinary working with health and social care professionals, scientists, engineers, and anthropologists to facilitate and converge design with science and technology for the development of locally situated services and policy developments to address societal challenges. Along with Daniela Sangiorgi she edited the book Designing for Service (Bloomsbury, 2017).

Daniela Sangiorgi is Professor at the Department of Design of Politecnico di Milano, Italy. She has been one of the first scholars studying service design and co-editor of two leading books (Design for Services, 2011; Designing for Service, Bloomsbury, 2017). She worked 8 years in the UK (ImaginationLancaster, Lancaster University). Her expertise is design for service innovation, with a focus on public services and healthcare. She is a member of Polimi DeSIS Lab (https://www.desis.polimi.it).