Abstract
This theoretical paper critically examines the relationship between design for social innovation and the concept of empowerment. It questions to what extent current empowerment discourses in design genuinely amplify marginalized voices or rather reinforce and hide existing structural inequalities. With the aim of unveiling the emptiness of signifiers, such as empowerment, much like the contested concept of ‘social innovation’, this contribution aims to encourage a critical reflection on power dynamics through an anarchafeminist lens. Rather than striving for definite answers or providing blueprints, this lens aims to be an open and dynamic invitation to scholars and practitioners to continue exploring (self)critical spaces and interrogate design for social innovation to reveal and confront the complexities, over-sights and potential challenges of contemporary design discourses.
Keywords
anarchafeminism; social innovation; empowerment; discourse
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.942
Citation
Volpi, V., Mitchell, V., Cockbill, S., and Kuzmina, K. (2024) The road to cooptation is paved with good intentions: an anarchafeminist critique of empowerment ambiguity in DSI, 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.2024.942
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Research Paper
Included in
The road to cooptation is paved with good intentions: an anarchafeminist critique of empowerment ambiguity in DSI
This theoretical paper critically examines the relationship between design for social innovation and the concept of empowerment. It questions to what extent current empowerment discourses in design genuinely amplify marginalized voices or rather reinforce and hide existing structural inequalities. With the aim of unveiling the emptiness of signifiers, such as empowerment, much like the contested concept of ‘social innovation’, this contribution aims to encourage a critical reflection on power dynamics through an anarchafeminist lens. Rather than striving for definite answers or providing blueprints, this lens aims to be an open and dynamic invitation to scholars and practitioners to continue exploring (self)critical spaces and interrogate design for social innovation to reveal and confront the complexities, over-sights and potential challenges of contemporary design discourses.