[English] DJMed: Strategies and tactics for a more radically just world
The first meeting of the Mediterranean Design Justice node will take place in Pisa on October 13–15 in the framework of the Internet Festival 2019. More info http://bit.ly/DJNMedNode
Do you work in design oriented processes (especially connected to participation), form part of a community group who uses them and/or are interested in more critical practices? Join us for a three day encounter to create a new Mediterranean network of community organisers, activists, designers, and makers to create, share, and learn about Design Justice and its practice. If you want to know more about Design Justice and its history you can read here.
What is Design Justice (DJ) and why it makes sense to create the Mediterranean DJ node
In June 2015, at the Allied Media Conference in Detroit, a group of 30 people specializing in design, art, technology, as well as community organizers, participated in the “Generating Shared Principles for Design Justice” workshop.
The draft principles developed in that workshop will be refined in the coming years, being published in 2018 as “Principles of Design Justice”. We believe that the original proposal of the North American context can be adapted to other specific contexts of each region, so we want to build on this work using our geographical, cultural and political context of the Mediterranean.
Design Justice is a theoretical field and a practice that provides a critical and reflective framework whose priority is to focus the people and communities most affected by the design processes. To counter current challenges created by historical inequalities and oppressions, Design Justice proposes to use collaborative practices.
Design Justice can also be considered as a growing social movement that aims to ensure a more equitable distribution of the benefits and burdens of design processes, fair and meaningful participation, and recognition of traditions in terms of design, knowledge and practices of the communities involved.
Support from Fondazione Sistema Toscana (organiser of the 2019 Internet Festival) allowed us to be able to invite two of the founding members of the original DJN over to Pisa to meet with us and support us into kick starting this new exciting node.
That is why from the enthusiasm, respect, and recognition towards the generosity of the people and communities responsible for these tools today can be used and collectivized, we want to build on the incredible work done by the original North American group to establish a Mediterranean node of people who resonate with similar intersectional feminist values and work so that we can exchange and remodel design practices together.
Our focus on the Mediterranean is to reclaim an identity around this geography. In what ways can the original Design Justice discourse be enriched from our situated experiences?
In our current political climate (especially concerning migration) we want to diverge from the Global North / South dichotomy and development narratives. We want to develop critical and creative practices to design processes starting from what is already working locally across the region. As part of our process we want to engage critically with the concept of fortress Europe and Europe as a monolithic entity.
We acknowledge different routes to innovation, questioning power dynamic framing the Mediterranean as backward, lazy, and powerless especially after the economic crises in the past decade. We want to create more access to resources and collective intelligence and develop materials in languages other than English (check out here the first translation of the Design Justice principles to Spanish!).
Ultimately, we want to create a Mediterranean practice that interweaves histories, geographies, and politics. How can we defy these narratives? We believe there are important shared values, practices, migrations, and social contexts within this geography. So how do we unite our ability to co-create and rethink strategies and tactics for a more radically just world?
We will engage in several activities oriented to the creation of the organizational bases for the Mediterranean node, as well as the first agreements on a basic framework for the adaptation of the Design Justice principles within the framework of our geography, that is to say: what methods and ideas around justice do we have and agree on?
The encounter will also allow us to map knowledge, collectivize the debate and agreements on good and problematic practices and their approaches; generate a repository of strategies to create shared resources and transparent, accessible and local practices; discuss what additional results from this network we would like to see in the future (A grouping of local nodes? Planning for other meetings in the future? Creating knowledge about a different topic? Writing and translating materials in different languages? Developing training materials?).
To respond to all these concerns in a safe(r) and brave context, we are planning a two-day retreat in Pisa (Italy) from October 13 to 15. We have managed to ensure shared accommodation in a spacious house, where we can meet, dream and plan together.
About the shared house
To ensure the smooth development of the encounter, we can only accommodate 15 people in total, so if you are interested, inform us as soon as possible. We are currently negotiating the payment of accommodation, which we expect is about 25 euros a day. We will contribute individually to food expenses (although we are working to obtain accessible options). Accessibility issues are not a problem, tell us if you need anything and we will do our best to make sure you provide friendly environments.
Who are we?
We are a group of 5 individuals from different organisations (Platoniq, Data Liquen Lab, DigitalFems etc) who have met by the magic of the universe and the internet. When we met, we realized that we were incredibly inspired by the Design Justice Network and wanted to do something that spoke to our experiences. Support from Fondazione Sistema Toscana (organiser of the 2019 Internet Festival) allowed us to be able to invite two of the founding members of the original DJN over to Pisa to meet with us and support us into kick starting this new exciting node.
Please feel free to ask any questions and spread the word to anyone who may be interested in joining us. If you wish to attend the retreat or wish to keep in touch with the Design Justice Mediterranean node, you can subscribe to our newsletter.
You can write us an email through djnetmed@gmail.com for any questions or say hi! More info http://bit.ly/DJNMedNode
