Paper Short Abstract:

In Istanbul's urban context, this research employs a design anthropological open living lab approach to explore decolonial feminist values via co-speculation. We discuss imaginaries and ontological values around underrepresented feminist practices to gather insights for the future of "sharing."

Paper Abstract:

Decolonial feminism brings to light the struggles, reservoir of knowledge, practices, and anti-racist, anti-sexist theories intertwined with anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist ideologies (Verges, 2019, p.19). Decolonial feminism aligns with design anthropology, which follows Anti-Design traditions and questions corporate, market-driven object culture (Clarke, 2017, p.11). Embracing decolonial feminism, we reexamine underrepresented knowledge systems, fostering a discussion on redesigning sharing systems with a plural perspective through co-speculation.

Verges (2019) emphasised the significance of examining the contributions of women from the global south, highlighting their crucial role in challenging racial capitalism and heteropatriarchy. Under the patriarchal domestic structure in Türkiye, there are community-based autonomous care-oriented practices and rituals historically attributed to or adopted by women. Examining how women adopt them unveils alternative values and dynamics. Digital technologies and dominant mainstream influences are entwined in our daily lives. There is a growing need to understand how underrepresented knowledge systems inspire alternative imaginaries.

On several design anthropological open-living-lab sessions, we unpacked underrepresented feminist practices with people using a co-speculation method to inform on the emergent decolonial feminist values around sharing systems. In the session, we will show and discuss our design material and sample results, namely the imaginaries. The introduced imaginaries consist of and are not limited to care-oriented post-earthquake events and volunteer applications. Reflecting on the panel's call, we will speculate about the relationship between "what insights can designers gain from adopting a design anthropological perspective" and our insights gained from the co-speculation sessions.