Abstract
In this exploratory paper, we consider how an ethics of care can be applied to designing for health and wellbeing. We start from defining design as a careful assembling around absences and attending to things that are excluded, with the explicit intent of finding alternatives to how bodies are made through design. We discuss the potentials and challenges of holding space for idiosyncratic practices of wellbeing. We show how an ethics of exclusion can be deployed to analyse how we hold space in our own design processes and propose future research pathways.
Keywords
Care, Wellbeing, Design
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/nordes.2023.80
Citation
Kaklopoulou, I.,and Sanches, P.(2023) Holding space for wellbeing: Care and ethics of exclusion, in Holmlid, S., Rodrigues, V., Westin, C., Krogh, P. G., Mäkelä, M., Svanaes, D., Wikberg-Nilsson, Å (eds.), Nordes 2023: This Space Intentionally Left Blank, 12-14 June, Linköping University, Norrköping, Sweden. https://doi.org/10.21606/nordes.2023.80
Conference Track
exploratorypapers
Holding space for wellbeing: Care and ethics of exclusion
In this exploratory paper, we consider how an ethics of care can be applied to designing for health and wellbeing. We start from defining design as a careful assembling around absences and attending to things that are excluded, with the explicit intent of finding alternatives to how bodies are made through design. We discuss the potentials and challenges of holding space for idiosyncratic practices of wellbeing. We show how an ethics of exclusion can be deployed to analyse how we hold space in our own design processes and propose future research pathways.