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First World Conference
PURPLSOC 2015
The first world conference on pattern languages for societal change, held at Danube University Krems from July 3 to 5, 2015.
Motivation
A field in search of a shared stage.
For two decades, patterns and pattern languages had been published across many disciplines, with case studies describing their use. The work still felt like the visible part of a larger body of practice, with open questions about theory and about how pattern methods should be taught.
PURPLSOC was created to bring that work into the open. The goal was to show the breadth of the approach and to introduce examples from outside the research community into a shared discussion.
Programme
Questions the conference set out to explore.
- Architecture
- Urbanism and regional development
- Design, media, arts, and information technology
- Pedagogy, education, and learning
- Social activism and grassroots movements
- Everyday applications
- Additional disciplines
The programme combined research presentations with practice reports. It also created space for the theoretical questions that had been left open: what a pattern is, how patterns relate to one another, and how a pattern language can be taught and evaluated.
Before the conference
The 2014 workshop.
A preparatory workshop in November 2014 laid the ground for the first conference. Its work is recorded in the first volume of the proceedings, along with the discussions that shaped the programme.
Host
The conference was hosted by Danube University Krems, which has supported the series from its first workshop.