The Collaborative Future-Making research platform explores how we can envision inclusive and sustainable ways of living and thriving together. We do this through prototypes and discussions where people from all sectors of society are involved. Our multidisciplinary group of researchers have respective backgrounds in humanities, design, and social sciences.

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Future-making Academy – to read futures for societal change

The Future-making Academy at Malmö University is a reading circle focusing on complexity, future-making, and collaboration. The purpose is to make research available, deepen, and provide space to examine and discuss how thoughts and ideas from the texts we read can resonate with our own practices. 

About Future-making Academy

Seminars 2022

5 April

Future imaginaries of artificial intelligence for human life – a Nordic perspective.

With: Jason Tucker and Michael Strange, GPS Malmö University

6 April

Agonistic Navigating: Exploring and (Re)configuring Youth Participation in Design.

With: Kate Ferguson, participatory designer and PhD candidate, RMIT University, Melbourne. Co-hosted with the K3 Seminar Series.

Kate Ferguson

Kate Ferguson has recently completed a PhD at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. With a professional background in architecture, placemaking, public engagement, and community projects, she has a longstanding interest in the way people participate in shaping the built environment.

28 April

Flow Feelers – a study circle on applied ecofeminism for men.

With: Thomas Laurien, senior lecturer in design at HDK-Valand, and co-founder of the Design and Posthumanism Network

9 May

The Issue of Agency in Public Sector Infrastructuring Final PhD seminar.

With: PhD student in Interaction Design Alicia Smedberg K3 MAU and discussant Carl DiSalvo, School of Literature, Media, & Communication, Georgia Institute of Technology. This will be co-hosted with the K3 seminar series.19 May, 14.00-16.00

Stories and Design Recipes to Wonder, Care and Prioritize Relational Homemaking

50% PhD seminar with PhD student in Interaction Design Juliana Restrepo Giraldo K3 MAU/Linneus University and discussant Martín Ávila Professor of Design at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design. This will be co-hosted with the K3 seminar series.

23-25 May

1st Symposium on Storytelling and Collaborative Future Making

Seminars 2021

4 March

Transmissions: Critical tactics for making and communicating research (video)

17 March

In Swedish: Att föreställa sig framtider (del 1) – livesänd samtalserie i samarbete med Malmö konstmuseum

25 March

How can we imagine a future for integration? (video)

31 March

A part of K3's seminar series and part four of the Co-becoming in the Pluriverse series.

We know so much, but we have not learned to use knowledge wisely (video)

6 April – 28 May

River – A process for decolonizing together

12 April

Automation of imagination (video)

15 April

From Dark Mountain to Östervåla: Gatherings around Climate Predicaments (video)

28 April

Att föreställa sig framtider (del 2) – livesänd samtalserie i samarbete med Malmö konstmuseum (video)

29 April

Storytelling for sustainability(video)

4 May

Speculative fiction and the bureaucracy of the future(video)

5 May

In Swedish: Att föreställa sig framtider (del 3) – livesänd samtalserie i samarbete med Malmö konstmuseum (video)

11 May

Decertifying legal sex/gender status (video)

28 September

Watch 'Utopia's in the making' at Mau Play

4 October

Watch Respectively Yours: Yoko and Ann on Pluralist Accounting at Mau Play

12 November

Watch Public sector innovation: panacea or pandora´s box? at Mau Play

13 December

Watch Transition Landscapes at Mau Play

Challenging heritage development by engaging with the past in the design space. With: Mela Zuljevic Faculty of Architecture and Arts, University of Hasselt, Belgium

https://play.mau.se/id/0_knlzjp6f?width=608&height=402&playerId=23452644?enablejsapi=1

https://play.mau.se/id/0_z6f3rl8v?width=608&height=402&playerId=23452644?enablejsapi=1

Platform affiliated researcher Rahel Weldeab Sebhatu took part in a seminar at the Museums as Catalysts for Change event: What role can museums play in the fight for a sustainable future?

https://youtube.com/embed/FtTqCk_aGLg?enablejsapi=1&rel=0&showinfo=1&controls=1

Our research

Our work draws upon multidisciplinary, critical perspectives from the humanities and social sciences. We combine these perspectives with design research methods that are collaborative and constructive, such as making and prototyping.

One of our guiding concepts is critical imagination, which is about challenging basic assumptions, norms and structures for what constitutes socially, culturally, ecologically and economically sustainable futures.

Our research is carried out in collaboration with professionals and policy makers, as well as individuals and non-governmental organisations. Together, we prototype and discuss alternative and collaborative futures.

To summarise, the platform aims to:

  • envision and prototype inclusive and sustainable futures
  • develop ways for how these futures can be debated
  • work closely with actors from all sectors of society

Research methodologies and focus areas

Research methodologies and approaches include art, action research, co-design, discourse theory and analysis, feminism, hermeneutics, historicisation, performativity, phenomenology, postcolonial studies, posthumanism, science and technology studies, and social network analysis.

Focus areas include critical imagination, anthropocene storytelling, heterodox economies, collaborative resilience, and societal engagement.

Forskningsplattformen Collaborative Future-Making tar sin utgångspunkt i mänsklighetens bristande förmåga att föreställa sig hur världen skulle kunna vara annorlunda.

Ett centralt begrepp är "critical imagination" (kritisk föreställningsförmåga). Detta handlar om att ifrågasätta grundläggande antaganden, normer och strukturer. Syftet med detta är att vidga människors perspektiv på vad som skulle kunna utgöra socialt, kulturellt, ekologiskt och ekonomiskt hållbara framtider.

Plattformen utforskar hur vi kan föreställa oss dessa alternativa framtider samt formerna för hur vi gemensamt kan utforma, testa och debattera dem. Den tvärvetenskapliga forskargruppen är verksam inom humaniora, design och samhällsvetenskap.

Researchers, publications and projects

Total hits: 36
Wordcloud.

This glossary was first used within the research group as an exercise to share concepts that we found central to collaborative future-making, then to be used during the Imagining Collaborative Future-Making workshop. This collection of concepts reflects the heterogeneous and diverse character of the research group and a strong belief in that plurality regarding ontologies and epistemologies will be crucial to being able to handle the multiple uncertainties and complex challenges we have to face in the future.

  • Andrea Botero, Aalto University, Finland
  • Davina Cooper, King's College London, UK
  • Max Koch, Lund University, Sweden
  • Andrew Morrison, The Oslo School of Architecture and Design, Norway
  • Emily Spiers, Lancaster University, UK
  • Danielle Wilde, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
Total hits: 5