Conference Agenda

Indigeneity in Argentina has historically been oppressed. The project presented here is a collaboration between design researchers and students from Buenos Aires and Indigenous groups in Northern Argentina that combines anthropologi-cal and design methods. Participatory experiences are at the core of the pro-posal. Interactions within the communities led to various lines of work. The top-ics varied from textile production, natural coloring, traditional nourishment, and construction to didactic materials for schools within intercultural bilingual edu-cation. The results show not only material outcomes, but also how the project moved its participants. In light of the widely differing worldviews, the learning process became an exchange. Is it possible that design education in Argentina will change its predominant practices, as the result of dialogical collaborations with Indigenous peoples? What challenges would this lead to? The project aims to be an example of a dialogue between worlds, in a pluriversal context.

The construction of a situated epistemology for design was the key issue that emerged from the Colombian—Brazilian dialogue during the last Congress of Design Research held in Bogotá in 2023. Design from the South is the expression of a new epistemology. An epistemology in which the designing is oriented to social transformation, applying the ancestral knowledge in search of social equity and sustaina-bility, and paving the way to design justice. This article presents examples of the way in which this epistemology of design sprouts from the community itself. Designers are part of these communities. Therefore, the design activity here is a form of activism, since the privations and internal conflict make the design solutions a political statement.

This article reflects on design and the training of designers from a West African perspective, based on the experience of Studio Wudé, a workshop which has been working in Senegal since 2006 to transmit endogenous knowledge about leather transformation. Through an analysis of the Studio's pedagogical design approach, the aim is to question in West African contexts the relevance of the historical dissociation between thinking and doing, at the genesis of a Western industrial capitalist design culture whose spread in West Africa has accelerated over the past five years via the emergence of higher design education based on a Western model in crisis. Studio Wudé adopts an unprecedented position by embracing within a single reflexive space the dual challenge of training designers and craftsmen in Africa : it advocates the singularity of an African design trajectory within the Pluriverse, conveying a different relationship to the world.

This paper explores the concept of Shanzhai ('fake' in Chinese), a Chinese practice often associated with imitation and design plagiarism, this study uses Shan-zhai to critique dominant forms of innovation, framed by a discussion of pluriversal design. Through a comprehensive literature review and empirical research, this study explores Shanzhai's evolution from a response to globalisation and de-sign colonisation to a reflection of identity. Shanzhai's unique approach challenges dominant design narratives, but in its own way emphasises inclusiveness and innovation. The study concludes that Shanzhai transcends its initial role as a design and manufacturing practice, evolving into a cultural phenomenon symbolising Chinese identity and resistance to Western dominance in design and innovation. Through its journey, Shanzhai raises essential questions about ethics, identity, and the dynamics of design paradigms. This research contributes to the discourse on pluriversal design by showcasing Shanzhai's capacity to challenge pre-conceived notions and foster inclusivity.

This case study documents the process of research, identification, and co-creation —with members of the drag community— a visual ethnography of Gainesville's drag culture. This study documented drag performance as an integral element of public-facing queer communities and took place during 2021 and 2022. Drag GNV aim is to contextualize the importance and nuance of drag as an activity supporting LGBTQ+ individuals and communities and as a publicly visible format for sharing elements of LGBTQ+ community identity with broader audiences. This research focused on conversations with the queer community (performers and allies) and centered reflections on drag venues as safe spaces, to build on the oral and visual history and promote the drag art form. The project weaves together past and present stories and contributes to the collective creation of safe spaces for queer people.

Academia and corporate capitalism show increasing interest in grassroots

practices as useful to product development for low-income markets and relevant to

sustainable innovation models. Captured in this interest is jugaad, an Indian

problem-solving practice rooted in everyday life, which emphasises practicality,

resource efficiency and an elastic approach to rules. Interest from the Global North in

grassroots practices risks their decontextualisation, decentering and dilution in a

power-knowledge play that principally serves the needs of hegemonic Euro-USA

design. Drawing on Arturo Escobar’s idea of pluriversal design, which holds that

everyone designs, creating a multiplicity of sociocultural formations, we examine

jugaad as a distinct and situated practice counter to the affinity effects necessary for

the appropriation of the practices of others. Our paper explores the logic of jugaad

through its expression in Delhi’s markets at a time when resource-intensive, socially

divisive modern retail formats are threatening India’s culture of markets.