Filippo Muzi Falconi, MSc Psychology of Economic Life
BIO
I recently completed a MSc in Psychology of Economic Life at the LSE. For my dissertation I analysed the processes used by people to solve problems in the context of citizen-led community projects. I wanted to understand the mechanisms that allow new solutions to emerge, particularly solutions that address social and environmental problems. Prior to LSE, I worked for a research organisation in the field of development economics and for a consultancy practice that facilitates processes of organisational change. I grew up in London to Italian parents and I studied economics as an undergraduate.
DISSERTATION
Solving one problem at the time: an analysis of problem solving in the context of a citizen participation project.
Supervisor: Saadi Lahlou
This dissertation analyses problem solving in the context of a citizen participation programme. The programme was conceived in partnership with the municipality of Paris. An action research approach is used to examine how groups of citizens develop viable solutions to local issues. This present study focuses on a group in particular. It analyses how their representation of the problem and of the solution evolve overtime and the mechanisms that drive this evolution. Findings suggest that the group’s representation of the solution and of the problem are not fixed but are reformulated at different stages in time. Driving this evolution is a continuous interaction between sub-problems and solution attempts. These mutually prompt each other in what is known as a problem-solution co-evolution process. This interaction seems to be mediated by knowledge, in the form of past experiences, analogous cases, and information retrieved in the project brief.