Publication: Powering the Commons Through Design – Embracing the Aesthetics of Convivial Imperfection


How can design strategically strengthen non-capitalist and postcapitalist economies and increase the social power of those sustaining them? What role does aesthetics plays in shifting power towards postcapitalist modes of life? How can it more effectively contribute to make postcapitalist modes of life both widely desirable and translocally regenerative?
 
In this text Bianca reflects on how designers can direct their aesthetic choices towards empowering and eco-social justice fostering modes of life. The text is part of the open-access volume Power in Transformation: creative practices as catalysts of change.
 
These thoughts were first presented as a keynote at the By Design and By Disaster conference organised by the MA in Eco-Social Design of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano in 2024.

 

Download the text:
 
Elzenbaumer, Bianca. 2025. “Powering the Commons Through Design: Embracing the Aesthetics of Convivial Imperfection.” In Power in Transformation, edited by Mustapha El Moussaoui, Kris Krois, and Teresa Palmieri. Oekom.
 

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