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Decolonizing Design Research towards the Pluriverse

Keynote, VIII Sustainable Design Symposium, UFPR, 2021.

Abstract: Design research has historical roots in the modernity project, which violently subsumes non-modern diverse cultures into colonized monocultures. Design research is also well-grounded in the development discourse that justifies unequal exchanges between nations, institutions, and communities. However, design research is also a realm of dispute where critical design researchers can stand against colonization and underdevelopment. In the last few years, these researchers have shown that the decolonization of design research can open up the field for several courses of development that do not reproduce the same contradictions of modernity. For example, the elusive concept of the pluriverse provides an alternative pathway for development: a universe in which many universes coexist. Inspired by this concept, critical design researchers are trying to overcome the modern contradiction of nature versus culture and its false solution: sustainable development.

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Categories: Talks & Lectures.

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