Design justice

Design justice is central in meet.coop in two ways. First, treating the stack of commons as a field of design, conducted under principles of social, economic and environmental justice. And secondly, designing, stewarding and mobilising the spaces of meet.coop for the cultivation of social, economic and environmental justice.

See: Infrastructuring

xxx Expand the schema below - plural sectors of meet.coop community on one hand, plural commitments of cicil-society activism on the other . . defining a frame for design-of-infrastructure aka the meet.coop stack of commons.

Infrastructuring as design justice in meet.coop - A weave of plural communities and plural commitments in civil society activism

See: Plural community

See: Seven Rs of mutual sector commitment

===

Note: The framing above is meet.coop’s, and is strongly linked to the framing of meet.coop practice as a stack of commons that facilitate radical, civil-society, activist commitments and practices of formaciòn. It's grounded in historical materialism, commoning traditions, New Left commitments and Ivan Illich's 'contra-professionalist' vernacular vision. So it's some generations old.

Its origins differ from some other approaches to design justice (younger, often linked with 'radical professional' UX design in the digital sphere). For reference and comparison, here's a statement of the principles of the Design Justice Network Design Justice principles. We will want to be sure that we cover these bases, though not perhaps within the exactly the same vision of practice.

• We design to sustain, heal, and empower our communities, as well as to seek liberation from exploitative and oppressive systems

• We center the voices of those who are directly impacted by the outcomes of the design process

• We prioritize design’s impact on the community over the intentions of the designer.

• We view change as emergent from an accountable, accessible, and collaborative process, rather than as a point at the end of a process.

• We see the role of the designer as a facilitator rather than an expert.

• We believe that everyone is an expert based on their own lived experience, and that we all have unique and brilliant contributions to bring to a design process.

• We share design knowledge and tools with our communities.

• We work towards sustainable, community-led and -controlled outcomes.

• We work towards non-exploitative solutions that reconnect us to the earth and to each other.

• Before seeking new design solutions, we look for what is already working at the community level. We honor and uplift traditional, indigenous, and local knowledge and practices.