ABSTRACT
Design contribution towards more sustainable and plural futures could be framed as a design practice directed at fostering, enabling and supporting the collective discussion and re-imagination of our societies, which means of their structures and dynamics. A closer observation and reflection on current design efforts and approaches aimed at contributing towards this end discloses their limits and challenges. In regards to this, this chapter states the need for the design community to engage in a deeper discussion about what is social innovation and which are its features, as well as to rethink design practice for social innovation. Here, the theories of complexity, specifically the theory of dynamic systems, and the agonistic model of democracy are the theoretical background for suggesting a different design practice towards more democratic futures. Specifically, social innovation is reinterpreted as a dissipative structure, and the designer’s role as the catalyst of the amount of agitation and chaos that is necessary for the emergence of new possible system states. Insights about how a different design practice are pointed out by reflecting on some Brazilian design experiences.
