Jetske van Oosten

About Jetske van Oosten

Jetske van Oosten specializes in designing change. She gives lectures, training sessions, and executive coaching, and works for a variety of clients in the public domain.

Trained as a philosopher and architect, she began her career as an advisor to municipalities and housing corporations. She then led various innovation programs in the field of housing, later expanding to education, healthcare, and the social domain. A common thread in all these programs is the involvement of artists and designers to achieve social change.

Social change requires collaboration and mutual understanding among a multitude of parties, often necessitating a perspective that extends beyond one’s own experience or the boundaries of one’s own organization. It requires the courage to let go of the familiar and to create space for a collective exploration of new possibilities. That sounds beautiful and important. But above all: terribly complex. How do you approach that?

In transition? Fall in love with the issue! (…and not with your solution).

According to Jetske, there is much to learn from the way artists and designers work. Together with Tabo Goudswaard, she wrote a book about it: ‘Maakkracht, a new approach to complex issues’. The book was published in 2022 by Atlas Contact. Filled with numerous design initiatives in the fields of health, education, safety, social equality, and climate change, readers gain insight into the unique talents and working methods of creative artists and designers. The book demonstrates how they can set complex systems in motion from within, and that it often doesn’t have to be as complex as one might think.

Jetske enjoys taking her readers and audience into the richness of possibilities for shaping social change. With many concrete examples, she shows how involvement, imagination, and courage can create the space needed for systemic change.

In addition to being a writer, speaker, and impact designer, Jetske is also a member of the Social Creative Council, a member of the Knowledge Ring of the Council for Public Health and Society, and a supervisor at the care institutions Cosis (VG&GGZ), Aveleijn (VG), and De Wever (VVT).

}