Table Of ContentEmpathy and Business Transformation
Due to its potential transformative nature, empathy has increasingly received atten
tion in business, psychology, neuroscience, education, medicine, social sciences and
design, to mention only a few. During the last two decades, discussions about the
role of empathy in design and creative research and practice have developed, with
empathy perceived as a key instrument in human-centred design and design
thinking. This book revisits the powerful concept of empathy in the new post-
pandemic era in which ubiquitous digitalisation presents challenges to retaining
human-centredness when developing products and services.
The book presents a practical four-step approach to the challenges presented
concerning how organisations can turn from merely feeling empathy with or for
people, to actions of empathy and compassion that can be implemented with and
by communities. A wide range of organisations and organisational settings can
benefit from the presented case studies and research methods. Through them, the
book explores how to discover, share and act with empathy and compassion
in the new digitally driven post-pandemic era to innovate across a wide range
of organisations, including for-profit and not-for-profit businesses and those
in the public and third sectors.
This edited volume will appeal to global researchers in the fields of product and
service design and digital, social innovation, as well those interested in organisational
development. The practical, interdisciplinary nature of the book and innovative
four-step approach will also appeal to upper-level students.
Melanie Sarantou is an adjunct professor in social design and senior researcher
at the University of Lapland, investigating how arts and narrative practices impact
marginalised women in communities in Namibia, Lapland, Russia and Australia.
Her current research focuses on the role of arts in societies that exist on the
margin of Europe in the European Commission-funded Horizon 2020 project
titled ‘Action on the Margin: Arts as Social Sculpture’.
Satu Miettinen is professor of Service Design at the University of Lapland, Finland,
with research interests spanning the themes of design methods in engaging with the
Arctic region, service design methods for inclusion, the participatory development of
services and socially responsible art and design methods.
Empathy and Business
Transformation
Edited by
Melanie Sarantou and Satu Miettinen
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Melanie Sarantou and Satu Miettinen;
individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Melanie Sarantou and Satu Miettinen to be identified as the
authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual
chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without
intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-032-13076-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-13078-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-22755-7 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003227557
Typeset in Bembo
by Taylor & Francis Books
Contents
List of figures viii
List of tables x
List of contributors xi
Acknowledgements xvii
1 Introduction 1
MELANIE SARANTOU AND SATU MIETTINEN
SECTION A
The role of creativity and the arts in creating empathy:
Step 1: Create connections for generating empathy 13
2 ‘We really have quite a lot to say …’: Fostering agency of youth
with asylum-seeking backgrounds by arts-based methods and
dialogue as actions of empathy 15
ENNI MIKKONEN AND KATRI KONTTINEN
3 Encouraging empathy in creative tourism 31
TATIANA KRAVTSOV, MARIA HUHMARNIEMI AND OUTI KUGAPI
4 Empathy in digital participatory artworks 44
KATJA JUHOLA, MARIJA GRINIUK AND SMARANDA-SABINA MOLDOVAN
5 Collaborative art and storytelling as an empowering tool for
social design 60
DARIA AKIMENKO, MELANIE SARANTOU AND SATU MIETTINEN
vi Contents
SECTION B
The role of stories in creating empathy:
Step 2: Create emotional insights 77
6 Building empathy in a digital business through Love and
Break-up Letters 79
ROSANA VASQUES, MIKKO KORIA AND
MARIA CECILIA LOSCHIAVO DOS SANTOS
7 Comprehending the lenience on academic assessment regulations
through university students’ emotional insights in Tanzania 92
ALBERT TIBAIJUKA AND LUDOVICK MYUMBO
8 Building trust with storytelling: Dialogues and encounters in
the Arctic 104
CAOIMHE ISHA BEAULÉ AND MARI VIINIKAINEN
9 Imagine this! Storytelling, places and empathy 119
JUHA ISO-AHO, NINA LUOSTARINEN AND PEKKA VARTIAINEN
10 Telling the story: How arts-based methods can create space for
empathy in students and teachers in the postcolonial university
design context 135
MICHELLE OLGA VAN WYK
SECTION C
The role of design in creating empathy:
Step 3: Wayfinding and initiating action with
beneficiaries 147
11 Empathic perspective to understand people’s experiences in the
service prototyping context in Chile 149
MIRA ALHONSUO AND MARILUZ SOTO HORMAZÁBAL
12 Benefits and challenges of designer empathy work in
multidisciplinary collaboration 164
TARJA PÄÄKKÖNEN AND MARINA BOS-DE VOS
13 Towards a more empathic organization: An exploratory case study
of a multinational manufacturing corporation 181
KRISTA KORPIKOSKI
14 Design, empathy and autonomy: Reflections on theory and
practice 197
Contents vii
BRUNA MONTUORI, MARIA LUIZA VIANA, ROSANA VASQUES AND
MARIA CECILIA LOSCHIAVO DOS SANTOS
15 Materiality as a mediator of empathy through culture-based
product design for tourism 212
HEIDI PIETARINEN, EIJA TIMONEN AND MELANIE SARANTOU
SECTION D
The role of technology in creating empathy:
Step 4: Scaling up empathic action 229
16 Human or nonhuman agent? Experiences of empathy in a digital
customer tourism journey 231
PÄIVI HANNI-VAARA
17 Capitalising on empathic actions: Design principles of digitally
transforming business processes 246
YANGYANG ZHAO AND TIMOTHY K. CRAIG
18 Empathy and delivery cyclists 262
EDUARDO RUMENIG SOUZA, LUIZ E. P. B. T. DANTAS, ROSANA VASQUES,
ANDRÉ CASANOVA SILVEIRA AND MARIA CECÍLIA LOSCHIAVO DOS SANTOS
19 AI innovations, empathy and the law: A user-centric perspective
on copyright and privacy 277
ROBERT VAN DEN HOVEN VAN GENDEREN, ROSA MARIA BALLARDINI AND
MARCELO CORRALES COMPAGNUCCI
Index 291
Figures
1.1 Process for empathic action through cross-disciplinary and
creative approaches to find solutions to societal and
organisational needs 7
2.1 The ‘camp’ consisted of multiple communal, embodied and
symbolic exercises 21
2.2 Visual expressions of social and environmental
interconnectedness 24
3.1 Birch bark weaving workshop, in outdoor environment, August
2020, Rovaniemi 33
3.2 Birch bark weaving workshop, December 2020, Gallery Napa,
Rovaniemi 37
4.1 (From top right, clockwise) Hugo Pena during a tree
connection; Smaranda-Sabina meditating under the white
willow; screenshots during ISEAS 2020 50
4.2 Territory by Marija Griniuk (2018). Video still 53
5.1 Process of making life mandalas on cotton textile circles with
acrylic paint 65
5.2 Installation of the three-dimensional spiral made of the life
mandalas stitched together 66
5.3 A process for creating empathy by Daria Akimenko (2016) 71
6.1 Name and logo change from Kassi to Sharetribe and Kassi
website and user’s feedback page 80
6.2 Bubble graph evidencing users’ positive feelings for Sharetribe 83
8.1 Snippets from Arto and Marina’s footage were used in one of the
workshops on Sámi food culture that covered smoking meat in
the lavvu, lake fishing, and making fish and potato soup 110
8.2 Optimal cooperation through accompaniment: dialogues,
relationships, empathy, trust and storytelling 113
9.1 Screenshot from Google Maps to demonstrate the number and
location of all the Rural Explorer stories 120
9.2 The story production process 128
10.1 The six stages of the story from the hero’s journey, as defined by
Joseph Campbell in 1973 139
Figures ix
10.2 ‘Colours, Numbers and Names’—Digital story by Michelle
van Wyk 140
11.1 Details of the five online workshops 154
11.2 The workshop template in an online Miro board, which
introduces the exercises 156
11.3 ‘Prototyping through Empathic Insights’ framework 159
12.1 Designer empathy work co-evolves with identity work and
boundary work 173
13.1 Event listing of the major events and customer-centric
development actions of the organization during 2005–2014 188
15.1 Surveillance camera covered with reindeer fur; small and finished
hanger; headphones covered with reindeer fur; keeping the cold
out with underwear or shoe insoles made of reindeer fur 217
15.2 Taking control of one’s personal space, for example, by
mounting reindeer antlers on the back of a scooter (‘Stay away!’)
or attaching antlers to one’s waist (‘Don’t touch me!’); play and
humour in product design: a crystal ball, boys’ play swords, a
skateboard, a mask and pogo stick 222
16.1 Digital experiences of empathy with a human or nonhuman 237
17.1 Stakeholders and needs 253
17.2 Workflow map of a typical project 254
17.3 High-level requirements for the request control system 256
17.4 Example of a communication interface for one request 257
18.1 Adolfo’s customised mountain bike and Juan’s e-bike 268
18.2 A DPc enjoys the free space among the protesters to make tricks
and stunts with his bicycle during the BrequedosApps in Paulista
Avenue, denoting new uses of the bicycle, body and urban space 272
