The CSCD method: A systematic innovation framework for cultural–technical contradictions-development and validation through culturally constrained content design

Abstract

Systematic innovation methods resolve technical contradictions effectively but lack procedures for cultural–technical contradictions, in which scientifically accurate information conflicts with cultural taboos. Such contradictions pervade sensitive domains, including sexuality education, mental health, and death education, where feasibility depends on both scientific integrity and social acceptance. Theory of Inventive Problem-Solving (TRIZ) addresses physical contradictions but cannot operationalize cultural constraints, while participatory design lacks algorithmic protocols for conflicting stakeholder standards. This study develops the culturally constrained sensitive content design (CSCD) method, a five-module framework with formalized decision protocols that operationalizes cultural adaptation through tiered content architecture, metaphor-based narratives, de-realization techniques, and multi-stakeholder validation. The framework was validated through interviews with 20 children and a 7-expert focus group, using sex education comics in southern China as an extreme-constraint case. The CSCD method offers the first algorithmic framework for cultural–technical contradictions, with structural analogies suggesting transferability to mental health, death, and financial literacy education pending future empirical validation. It provides replicable procedures for materials that require both scientific accuracy and cultural acceptance, operationalizes cultural adaptation into designable parameters, and indicates potential transferability to other sensitive domains requiring multi-stakeholder validation.

Keywords

Systematic innovation / Cultural–technical contradictions / Culturally constrained sensitive content design (CSCD) method / Algorithmic design protocols / Cross-domain transferability

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