Abstract
Social Design is increasingly called upon to address new forms of wealth and poverty related to data, cultural capital, and social inequities, requiring tools that can reorganise capital and privilege for systemic transformation. To this end, we present and reflect on Value Matters, a board game we designed for eco-social enterprises to strategically reflect on their value generation and social organising activities.
Informed by systemic design frameworks and transformative economic principles, and employing a Research Through Design approach —including expert interviews, value taxonomy analysis, and participant focus groups—the toolkit opens up critical thinking on the design of the economy in a visually and participatory way. It challenges what an economy is and is supposed to be good for by inviting narratives of value creation from participatory fieldwork conducted with three eco-social initiatives based in [place/region].
The paper discusses the radical critiques of neoclassical theories of value, outlining exemplary models informed by theoretical stands of eco-feminism, ecological economics, diverse economies, and commons research that guided our framework and workshops. By adopting a playful process and prioritising visual storytelling over the quantitative language typical for social impact reports, the toolkit enables initiatives to identify, describe, and communicate their core values,the values they produc,e and the practices that go along with it. This helps to clarify a shared understanding:to communicate for themselves as a group, and to convincingly promote the values produced to stakeholders and the public.
About the Authors:
Noémi Zajzon researches the politics of participation in design cultures and the artefacts emerging from collective histories and experiences of participation. Her work, grounded in narrative environment design, spans exhibitions and participatory design with museums, NGOs, and grassroots organisations across Europe and the UK.
Jennifer Schubert was part of the Well-Use project and accompanied the process with her Design Research perspective. At this time, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Unibz Bolzano. Following she got appointed as Associate professor in Participatory Design at the THA Augsburg.
Laura Heym is strategic designer and consultant for sustainable transformation. She develops strategies, moderates processes, and connects stakeholders to drive sustainable transformation.
Anna Laumer is an eco-social design freelance illustrator and videographer let her convincing visual language do their work.
Kris Krois co-creates design practices, tools and strategies for emancipatory socio-ecological transformations. In this spirit, he is engaging as activist and professor for eco-social design. Since 2013 he is co-curating the annual conference By Design and by Disaster.
Contact: info@jenniferschubert.com
