What design can contribute to commoning: Conclusions & Looking ahead of the Charging the Commons Research Project
Date: July 4th, 2024
Time: 15:00-17:30 (with drinks until 18:30)
Location: AHK Culture Club | Marineterrein | Loods 27-K | Kattenburgerstraat 5-7 | 1018 JA Amsterdam
After two years of research, we will present the conclusions of the Charging the Commons Research Project at this wrap-up event. Check out the program below:
Presentations:
KEYNOTE | Intermediation in Design as a Practice of Institutioning and Commoning
by Prof. Marcus Foth
Design practices often involve grassroots communities and institutional actors with designers working as or with intermediaries. This talk introduces intermediation and suggests the merits of more explicitly recognising it as part of design practice, especially when designers engage in commoning and institutioning – concepts that have gained traction in recent discourses in design scholarship. To discuss intermediation, the talk introduces examples from a case study: a food supply chain research project between Australia and China. This case study shows implicit and explicit ways that intermediation can form an integral part of the practices and competences of designers. The talk concludes with a brief outlook how these intermediation practices have started to be integrated into the new Master of Design (Strategic Design) in the QUT School of Design.
Marcus Foth is a Professor of Urban Informatics in the School of Design and a Chief Investigator in the QUT Digital Media Research Centre (DMRC), Faculty of Creative Industries, Education, and Social Justice, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. He is a founding member of the More-than-Human Futures research group. Marcus’ research brings together people, place, and technology.
Be-commoning: what does it take to initiate new urban commons?
We will look at commons formation from a design perspective: what does the process of setting up a commons look like, and what can design contribute?
Speaker: Martijn de Waal, Professor AUAS – Civic Interaction Design Research Group
Design for Collective Decision-Making
During becommoning, communities must make numerous decisions. For instance, regarding their governance model, duties and responsibilities of members, or the ways to share resources. We will explore how tools for quadratic voting can shape these deliberation and decision-making processes. Based on a case study, we’ll zoom in on how this means of decision-making can provide communities with detailed information that can lead to more pointed discussions, and guidance to translate their shared values into designs.
Speaker: Tara Karpinski, Design Researcher at Caradt | Centre of Applied Research for Art, Design and Technology
Technological Infrastructures: Digital platforms for resource sharing
How can the design of technological infrastructures facilitate the sharing of common resources, as well as sustain the process of commoning itself, strengthening the relations between commons and a sense of collective identity?
Speakers: Zsuzsanna Tomor and Micky van Zeijl, researchers at AUAS – Civic Interaction Design Research Group
Panel discussion
We close off with a panel discussion in which several practice partners reflect on the research process, the findings, and the role of professionals in the be-commoning process.