Relationships that reduce people’s time spent in hospital, relationships that support finding and sustaining employment, relationships that increase cycling safety, relationships that increase work engagement of teachers. In my research I have observed many times that public services and social interventions that effectively address complex societal challenges involve carefully shaped human relationships. Such relational interventions are becoming ever more relevant in times of individualisation, disconnect and fragmentation in a ‘world that’s pulling apart’ [1]. What can we learn from the way that these interventions have been designed? And what role do they play when addressing complex societal challenges?
In this blog post I will show:
- Why positive human relationships matter on an individual and on a societal level
- Why human relationships are often overlooked when developing interventions for complex challenges
- That we cannot design human relationships, but that we can design conditions that enable positive human relationships
- What we can learn from practitioners who embed such conditions in effective public services and social interventions
Read the full blog post on my Medium profile here: https://medium.com/@miekevanderbijl/human-relationships-in-complex-challenges-what-can-we-design-87657ca26db6