Abstract
This paper addresses the inclusion of relationality as a concept in design. Relational-ity is primarily brought into design from adjacent disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, where the concept helps understand aspects of kinship, care, and belonging. The concept is also infused with elements of associative thinking. The paper narratively reviews examples of relationality in literature from design-related scholarly discourse. The literature sample covers papers addressing relationality through case studies or conceptual calls for practice change. The results from this review provide three understandings of relationality: 1) The utilitarian that unpacks social relations as an epistemic and functional source for designing objects. 2) The communitarian that unpacks the designer's situation and context as part of world-making communities. 3) The associative that unpacks opportunities to condition new –social– relations through interventions. The paper concludes by reflecting on the potential of relationality to promote positive transformations.
Keywords
literature; relationality; design transformation
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.1097
Citation
Arturo Ortega Alvarado, I. (2024) Relationality in design: What can be understood?, in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.1097
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Conference Track
Research Paper
Included in
Relationality in design: What can be understood?
This paper addresses the inclusion of relationality as a concept in design. Relational-ity is primarily brought into design from adjacent disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, where the concept helps understand aspects of kinship, care, and belonging. The concept is also infused with elements of associative thinking. The paper narratively reviews examples of relationality in literature from design-related scholarly discourse. The literature sample covers papers addressing relationality through case studies or conceptual calls for practice change. The results from this review provide three understandings of relationality: 1) The utilitarian that unpacks social relations as an epistemic and functional source for designing objects. 2) The communitarian that unpacks the designer's situation and context as part of world-making communities. 3) The associative that unpacks opportunities to condition new –social– relations through interventions. The paper concludes by reflecting on the potential of relationality to promote positive transformations.