Reworlding: Creating the Climate to Change Climate Change

Abstract

Reworlding is a European doctoral network funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. It is designed to challenge conventional interpretations of interaction design (IxD) research, supporting just and sustainable futures in a historical period defined by, and contributing to, climate change. Global warming is threatening many of the current life-forms inhabiting Earth and requires design practices to shift quickly to build networks for exchange, solidarity, inspiration, and collaboration. Composed of scholars who care about participatory design (PD), our Reworlding network aims to update the practice and offer what is needed for contemporary PD researchers to shift, strengthen, and redirect their collaborative efforts to responsibly inhabit a climate change–ridden world. We must consider together what that means for research practices. The network includes organizations in Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, and Switzerland, along with scholars in PD, architecture, the philosophy of technology, and sociology.

→ We refer to "climate" as a set of eco-social relations, and research as a means to favor a climate that decreases the role of humans in global warming. → The Reworlding doctoral network focuses on deepening, shifting, and creating methods and practices for more-than-human participation by attending to four capabilities: retracing, reconnecting, reimagining, and reinstitutioning.