ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides rich empirical cases and theoretical reflections on design anthropological practices of future-making. It discusses how futurity may take on different representational expressions and embody different socio-economic models. The book describes different presents in the making, in and through which various dynamics of time, materials and ecology are reflected in processes of design and making. It demonstrates how an interest in the space of the possible emerged in response to growing criticism of design and design research. The book also describes the practice of speculative design as cooperative inquiry. It engages with the ‘politics of inviting’ by proposing a shift in what design anthropologists invite to, and when. The book outlines potentials for the development of a more critical form of design anthropology in parallel with a more engaged and situated approach to speculative design.
