Os contributos da biomímica para o design de sistemas sociais sustentáveis: uma revisão e reflexão crítica com foco em insetos eussociais

• Autor(a) principal: Teixeira, Alice João Martins Rogado Gomes
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10451/56785
• topic: Biomímica; Insetos eussociais; Co-design; Inovação social; Sustentabilidade; Domínio/Área Científica::Humanidades::Artes

Certain animal societies display complex organisational structures and strategies that are shaped and refined by natural selection. For this reason, the main objective of this study is to understand how we can draw inspiration and use these characteristics as a stimulus for the ideation process with the purpose of re(designing) more sustainable human social systems. The research departed from a bibliographical review of relevant concepts, such as Biomimicry and Design for Social Innovation, as well as a historical contextualisation and ethical issues associated with the comparison of animal societies with human social systems. Subsequently, a focus was placed around eussocial insect societies such as bees, ants and wasps, as they are the most comparable to human communities, especially at the scale level. The areas analysed were: (1) self-organisation and communication, (2) task allocation and division of labour, and (3) resistance and resilience. After a critical reflexion and a dissection of the structures of some of these animal societies, parallels were established with human social systems and the respective critical points of potential learning were identified, applying the methodology of Biomimicry, in this case, in a social context. A bridge was also established between Design for Social Innovation and the Co-Design methodology, linking the identified concepts with public and community design solutions, with a social impact. The work is concluded with a mention of the importance of scientific literacy and a transdisciplinary education for the development and implementation of Design solutions using the Biomimicry methodology. A discussion on the relationship between Biomimicry and Sustainable Development was also carried out, as well as the potential future applications of solutions of this sort, focusing on the importance of developing further research in this area.