Shirin Kiefer, Kris Krois, Cedar Schimke, Julia Tebbe, Simon Wallies

We invite you to a session to tackle both sides of the coin in parallel: how to stay connected in the long term across all generations of students and graduates and how to get organized across transformation-engaged (study course) communities.

Staying connected: While studying, researching, and teaching at the Master in Eco-Social Design at the Free University of Bozen–Bolzano personal relations are woven (as in several similar study courses). But people come and go, and after a while relations with the constantly renewing “community” from the study course are fading. There are good reasons to stay connected, e.g., students could benefit a lot from the experiences of graduates and their very diverse pathways. While the graduates out there can benefit from a lively exchange with current students and teachers-researchers of the study course and its institutional possibilities. Let’s clarify needs, challenges, relevance and benefits in this session.

Getting organized: Over the past 15 years, several practice-oriented degree programmes focusing on socio-ecological transformation have been established (Eco-Social Design, Transformation Design, Social Design, Transformation Studies or similar study courses, including likewise engaged programmes coming from art, architecture, social innovation and critical social sciences). In these overwhelming times of crisis, conflict and collapse, students, graduates and teacher-researchers want to join forces to increase our transformative power through mutuality, joint strategies and actions, while at the same time being able to earn a living. ‘Hopeful Design Union’ is the working title for this. We build on past sessions and the existing network. Let’s figure out how to get organized and do next steps. All are welcome: old hands and newbies, radicals and moderates, butterflies, ants, earthworms, monkeys and other transformation-engaged species. Join forces now! More about it here. This part also invites the ones who cannot make it to the conference to join online (we will be well-equipped for hybrid collaboration).