Abstract
This short paper explores my work to start a Feminist Design Think Tank that will address wicked socio-economic problems through feminist technology. I introduce the thinking behind the initiative and reflections and recent work since presenting the idea at Pivot 2020. The proposed Think Tank will bring together members from different design fields and working in different countries and contexts to engage in applied design and research through design projects. Built on feminist foundations itself, the Think Tank will create a counter narrative in design, breaking from problematic foundations and norms such as presumed professional neutrality that excludes many voices, forms of knowledge and aesthetics including the female and feminine, understood in their broadest and intersectional forms. Work in the Think Tank will be rooted in an alternative economy and support social and economic sustainability through the feminist lenses applied to practice. The Think Tank will contribute socially and theoretically through its many applied research projects and through the structure of the Think Tank itself, an experiment in new design economies and applied feminist design practice.
Keywords
Feminist design; socio-economic sustainability; alternative economies; wellbeing
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/pluriversal.2020.105
Citation
Prochner, I.(2020) Starting a Feminist Design Think Tank, 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.2020.105
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Starting a Feminist Design Think Tank
This short paper explores my work to start a Feminist Design Think Tank that will address wicked socio-economic problems through feminist technology. I introduce the thinking behind the initiative and reflections and recent work since presenting the idea at Pivot 2020. The proposed Think Tank will bring together members from different design fields and working in different countries and contexts to engage in applied design and research through design projects. Built on feminist foundations itself, the Think Tank will create a counter narrative in design, breaking from problematic foundations and norms such as presumed professional neutrality that excludes many voices, forms of knowledge and aesthetics including the female and feminine, understood in their broadest and intersectional forms. Work in the Think Tank will be rooted in an alternative economy and support social and economic sustainability through the feminist lenses applied to practice. The Think Tank will contribute socially and theoretically through its many applied research projects and through the structure of the Think Tank itself, an experiment in new design economies and applied feminist design practice.