This interview reader is the second in a row of a series published along the way of the practice-based design research project ‘Economies of Commoning’, which sets out to explore practices, value systems and economies that are based on the commons and taking shape as spaces of dissensus in the urban context. Continue reading
Writing
Essays, papers, and other publications
New publication out now: Field Explorations
New publication: Alps 2060 – a community futuring tool
A new publication in the Alpine Community Economies Laboratory series is out. This issue presents a workshop format developed to engage people in visionary and transformative ways to approach the various issues of regional development in the Alps. Continue reading
New publication: Common(s)Lab Zine
We are happy to announce the first publication of 2021: the Common(s)Lab Zine, documenting three years of (un)learning between 2018-21! Common(s)Lab is a community project in Schillerkiez, Berlin-Neukölln and was initiated at the end of 2017. Continue reading
New publication out now!
Great news! We have a new publication to announce: the first interview reader of a series under the umbrella of the research project ‘Economies of Common/ing’. Here the blurb in both English and German: Continue reading
Designing with(in) a community: Sharing insights gained through practice
Essay by Malin Bäckman, published in Agents of Alternatives – Re-designing Our Realities (AoA Berlin, 2015)
I wanted to gain understanding of how to involve residents of a neighbourhood in a design process through a series of initiatives, referred to as ‘explorations’. These explorations were carried out between October 2011 and August 2012 in Kannelmäki, a suburban area of Helsinki, and formed part of my Master’s Thesis at the Creative Sustainability programme, at Aalto University. Continue reading
Learning by doing – the transformative power of do-it-together (DIT)
Essay by Katharina Moebus, published in Agents of Alternatives – Re-designing Our Realities (AoA Berlin, 2015)
For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them. (Aristotle1)
There are certain things you only learn through direct experience. Roughly four years ago, I had the chance to go through an experience which entirely changed the way I look at problems. Continue reading
The joyful experiences of making together
Essay by Anja-Lisa Hirscher, published in Agents of Alternatives – Re-designing Our Realities (AoA Berlin, 2015)
There is an inherent pleasure in making … the sheer enjoyment of making something exist that didn’t exist before, of using one’s own agency, dexterity, feelings and judgment to mould, form, touch, hold and craft physical materials, apart from anticipating the fact of its eventual beauty, uniqueness or usefulness. (E. Dissanaykae)1
Continue reading
Design activism ’s teleological freedoms as a means to transform our habitus
Essay by Alastair Fuad-Luke, published in: Agents of Alternatives – Re-designing Our Realities (AoA Berlin, 2015)
We have witnessed a ‘social turn’ in design over the last decade that is gathering momentum as existing and new power structures perceive ‘designing’ as a means to achieve their telos, goal directed purpose. I prefer to talk about the ‘socialisation of design(-ing)’, that is, how the ‘field’1 of design is becoming an activity that is not the sole preserve of professionally trained designers as their approaches, methodologies and processes are being adopted by other professionals, professional amateurs (pro-ams) and citizens.2 Continue reading