Abstract
Amidst the upheaval of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the threat of the Sixth Extinction, designers focus on approaches that help communities connect and imagine alternative, desirable futures. Transdisciplinary approaches promise more sustainable and just transitions by valuing and integrating diverse forms of knowledge to co-shape more equitable design interventions. However, these ambitions often fall short. Transdisciplinary practices may be reduced to justice-washing or corporate co-optation, frequently failing to achieve epistemic and social justice. This paper introduces Responsible Futuring, a transdisciplinary design-led approach that enables communities to actively shape their future trajectories, embracing collaboration and diverse perspectives as catalysts for transformative action. We, as designers, self-reflect on cases using this approach to surface worldviews, explore alternative futures, and challenge the status quo. We discuss the epistemic and political shortcomings we experienced in practice. We highlight growing pains and offer recommendations for achieving transformative transdisciplinary ambitions in addressing societal transitions.
Keywords
responsible futuring approach, transdisciplinarity, designerly reflexivity, epistemic justice, social justice
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.2192
Citation
Zaga, C., Matos Castaño, J., and van der Voort, M. (2026) Keeping it Real with Responsible Futuring: Reflecting on the Epistemic and Political Ambition of a Transdisciplinary Approach for Societal Transitions, 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.2026.2192
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Keeping it Real with Responsible Futuring: Reflecting on the Epistemic and Political Ambition of a Transdisciplinary Approach for Societal Transitions
Amidst the upheaval of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the threat of the Sixth Extinction, designers focus on approaches that help communities connect and imagine alternative, desirable futures. Transdisciplinary approaches promise more sustainable and just transitions by valuing and integrating diverse forms of knowledge to co-shape more equitable design interventions. However, these ambitions often fall short. Transdisciplinary practices may be reduced to justice-washing or corporate co-optation, frequently failing to achieve epistemic and social justice. This paper introduces Responsible Futuring, a transdisciplinary design-led approach that enables communities to actively shape their future trajectories, embracing collaboration and diverse perspectives as catalysts for transformative action. We, as designers, self-reflect on cases using this approach to surface worldviews, explore alternative futures, and challenge the status quo. We discuss the epistemic and political shortcomings we experienced in practice. We highlight growing pains and offer recommendations for achieving transformative transdisciplinary ambitions in addressing societal transitions.