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Short abstract:

This paper presents an engagement with post-growth paradigms from an design perspective. It includes various prototypes to catalyse discussion on how assuming a different kind of end-user might contribute to shifting design from a motor of consumption to a contributor to post-growth futures.

Long abstract:

Designers play an important role in driving affluent capitalist economies. Despite sufficiently high living standards and the clear need to reduce consumption in industrialized nations, they are constantly developing new products that are supposed to make life easier and more pleasant. Industry benefits from the devaluation of human skills and cumulative technological dependence resulting from shifting expectations (Shove 2003) and automation (Pirgmaier 2020). However, it is becoming increasingly clear that neither the planet nor humans benefit from this paradigm.

In this paper, we argue how deeply embedded, often implicit ideas about end-users - identified as a techno-hedonist persona in Dahlgren et al. (2021) - lie at the basis of current design practices leading to a continuation of harmful consumerism.

To break this pattern, we introduced a different persona, grounded in a post-growth paradigm, to designers. Drawing on post-growth ideas around ecological limits, commons-based ownership, and voluntary simplicity (Sharmal et al. 2023) we envisioned a persona who, contrary to dominant assumptions, is willing and able to make an effort, learn new skills, and adapt their expectations of comfort and convenience. This persona, tentatively called an Eco-Harmonist, evoked a different way of designing and different kinds of outcomes that have potential to transform design practices and shape post-growth living from the bottom up.

To stimulate interaction with the audience, we'll bring examples from these projects to our talk, such as the BRYS thermostat interface, developed in collaboration with industry, and the Living Shirt and Municipan, designed as part of dedicated student projects.