Abstract
A world of many centers is a world where multiple worlds can flourish—where communities outside of the Center can design their own life projects, which reflect who they are, what they value, and who their ancestors had been. This paper argues that a Pluriversal Design—which aims to nurture alternative models of life and ways of world- making—is necessarily desire-based, in contrast with conventional needs-based approaches. I make a case for Social Design researchers and practitioners to hone our craft to respond primarily to the communities' desire, in contrast with the current focus on their needs, problems and deficits. I argue that needs-based approaches are conservative, implying the reproduction of a model of life —i.e., what is ‘desirable’ is supposedly know from the start and/or externally defined. Such approaches do not encourage the creation of new ‘possibles’. On the other hand, a desire-based approach is open-ended. In terms of creating a world of many worlds, what is the final result? We do not know yet; we will be doing something that has never been done before. Metaphorically, desire-based social change is about trailblazing with the help of a compass. Desire is the force that we have to engage when our task is to create new ways of shaping the human presence on this planet and new ways of world-making—an open- ended process towards the Pluriverse.
Keywords
Desire; needs-centered approaches; Pluriverse; Social Design
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/pluriversal.2020.011
Citation
Leitão, R.(2020) Pluriversal design and desire-based design: desire as the impulse for human flourishing, in Leitão, R., Noel, L. and Murphy, L. (eds.), Pivot 2020: Designing a World of Many Centers - DRS Pluriversal Design SIG Conference, 4 June, held online. https://doi.org/10.21606/pluriversal.2020.011
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Pluriversal design and desire-based design: desire as the impulse for human flourishing
A world of many centers is a world where multiple worlds can flourish—where communities outside of the Center can design their own life projects, which reflect who they are, what they value, and who their ancestors had been. This paper argues that a Pluriversal Design—which aims to nurture alternative models of life and ways of world- making—is necessarily desire-based, in contrast with conventional needs-based approaches. I make a case for Social Design researchers and practitioners to hone our craft to respond primarily to the communities' desire, in contrast with the current focus on their needs, problems and deficits. I argue that needs-based approaches are conservative, implying the reproduction of a model of life —i.e., what is ‘desirable’ is supposedly know from the start and/or externally defined. Such approaches do not encourage the creation of new ‘possibles’. On the other hand, a desire-based approach is open-ended. In terms of creating a world of many worlds, what is the final result? We do not know yet; we will be doing something that has never been done before. Metaphorically, desire-based social change is about trailblazing with the help of a compass. Desire is the force that we have to engage when our task is to create new ways of shaping the human presence on this planet and new ways of world-making—an open- ended process towards the Pluriverse.