Institutional design through the lens of social philosophy: analytical framework and conceptual foundations

Today, the concept of institutional design is widely used in the international academic literature, but its content is often undefined and varies in a wide range of meanings. This article aims to provide a socio-philosophical conceptualization of institutional design in the specific context of design thinking as the most consistent approach to applying design principles to social practice. The paper reconstructs the evo-lution of design thinking, with industrial design approaches transferred to organizational and political practices, which was possible due to the intrinsic connection between design practice and «wicked prob-lems». The focus of design thinking on shaping the powers and roles of stakeholders as well as the rules of their interaction with regard to the problem situation allows us to talk about the institutional nature of design thinking. Institutional design can be defined as a socio-political practice that examines and shapes a problem situation, establishes a list of actors, their powers, roles, and rules of interaction as well as rele-vant tools for solving the problem and a set of values the adoption of which can be considered a legiti-mate solution to the problem. The basic principles of institutional design are uncertainty, engagement, and iterativity. Uncertainty primarily reflects the fundamental impossibility of a complete solution to the problem and tolerance of failure. The engagement of citizens in shaping the structure of their interaction with state institutions has negative aspects of proletarianization of citizenship, but opens up the prospect of «institutional design society» as a possible option for the development of a digital society. Iterativity refers to the diachronic and synchronic diversity of designs of individual institutional contexts, the totality of which forms an institutional canon characteristic of a particular society. The results of the study can be used as an analytical tool in the study of modern projects of social transformation, as well as a methodological basis for the implementation of these projects.