Abstract
While the more-than-human is often made visible on the individual, contextual level, it is nevertheless vital to shape sustainable practices at policy and industry level to create sustained change. If it was a necessity to include non-human stakeholders in the creation of new buildings, in the manufacturing of new products and more, what could the needed design tools look like? This paper envisions design practices shaping a world where the more-than-human is already accepted and anchored in law through narration. Subsequently, an attempt is made to create tools that find practical application in this speculative scenario, creating a more-than-human practice that is self-evident and applicable in a larger context. Those speculative design practices are drawn into the present, resulting in a framework for persona creation & stakeholder mapping based on a Capability Approach, taking inspiration from service design and technology transition policy.
Keywords
more-than-human, capability approach, transition design, personas
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1572
Citation
Lackner, O.B. (2026) Imagining speculative design tools with a Capability Approach, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1572
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Imagining speculative design tools with a Capability Approach
While the more-than-human is often made visible on the individual, contextual level, it is nevertheless vital to shape sustainable practices at policy and industry level to create sustained change. If it was a necessity to include non-human stakeholders in the creation of new buildings, in the manufacturing of new products and more, what could the needed design tools look like? This paper envisions design practices shaping a world where the more-than-human is already accepted and anchored in law through narration. Subsequently, an attempt is made to create tools that find practical application in this speculative scenario, creating a more-than-human practice that is self-evident and applicable in a larger context. Those speculative design practices are drawn into the present, resulting in a framework for persona creation & stakeholder mapping based on a Capability Approach, taking inspiration from service design and technology transition policy.