Jan Baykara
Common Knowledge

What is design’s role in militant social struggle, in the face of concrete political challenges like the rapid victories of the European far right and colonial backing for the genocide in Palestine?

Design is fundamentally future-oriented: designers imagine and plan alternative futures. We urgently need to reconnect design with taking action in the present, increasing people’s capacity to affect and be affected. How can designers facilitate our collective radical imagination and, crucially, get started with the messy work of organising and building power in the here and now?

In this keynote, we’ll share some of the key challenges — as well as strategies for resistance and joy — that we’ve observed through working with movement actors in the UK. We’ll explore some potential roles that design can play within social movement ecologies, breaking away from traditional professional boundaries and instead defining design as an accessible and participatory practice for radical social change.