Sandjar Kozubaev — Scaffolding Emergent Futures: From Communities to Infrastructures

Design researchers and practitioners have long been interested in shaping futures through objects, systems, and environments. This interest seems to be ubiquitous and is highly visible in industry, popular culture, and scholarly knowledge production. At the same time, local communities, particularly in the U.S., have been dealing with pressures of disinvestment in public and social services, along with the encroachment of privatization and commercial interests. This created an acute need for communities to foster alternative ways of being and knowing, opening emergent futures that are less visible but just as impactful. How might designers notice these future-making practices? Is there a role for design to take part in them? In this talk, we will explore some theoretical and methodological possibilities to answer these and other questions about design speculation and future making.