Design capabilities for alternative socio-economic futures

Abstract

Locally grounded alternative initiatives often emerge in response to structural failures of the dominant system, promising to reimagine socio-political and economic futures. A recurring question is how such local experiments, prefiguring alternative ways of organising cooperation and governance, can inform and inspire wider change. We argue that participatory design (PD) is essential for working with local communities to preserve marginalised and situated knowledge, ethical commitments, and participatory relations that sustain alternative futures (Escobar 2018; Costanza-Chock 2020; DiSalvo et al. 2012; Huybrechts et al. 2022, 2024).

In this seminar, we discuss the empirical case of Aalborg, Denmark, involving a publicly formed "Coop Café" experimenting with platform cooperativism with marginalised groups in Aalborg.
We rely on the capabilities of "retracing" and "reconnecting" to explore how alternative models exist within community entanglements. Retracing refers to the acknowledgement of the need to describe and make visible interdependencies (Huybrechts et al. 2022), while reconnecting involves building a shared understanding of why different actors take up particular positions in relation to an issue and to one another, and of how intentionality, contingency, and power shape the way ideas get translated across people and groups (Huybrechts et al. 2022).
With observations from this empirical case, we contribute to theoretical discussions on designing for socio-economic futures by defining retracing and reconnecting as participatory design capabilities, and by presenting the fieldwork conducted in Aalborg, illustrating how these capabilities can intervene in alternative socio-economic initiatives.

Discussant

Francesca Forno, Università di Trento

Chiara Bassetti, Università di Trento

Chair

Mattia Andreola, Università di Trento