Foraging for food futures:Co-speculating sustainable food futures through the context of supermarkets for food system transitions.
Loading...
URL
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
School of Arts, Design and Architecture |
Master's thesis
Location:
Unless otherwise stated, all rights belong to the author. You may download, display and print this publication for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Authors
Date
2022
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Master's Programme in Collaborative and Industrial Design
Language
en
Pages
38+4
Series
Abstract
Currently, food systems are experiencing an unprecedented number of sustainability-related challenges spanning across social, ecological, economical and political dimensions. These have rendered the food system inadequate to foster human health while maintaining environmental stability. In order to enable transitions to resilient and sustainable food futures, we need to rethink our current ways of being. Consequently, this thesis aligns with the transition design principles that harness design's transformative potential. Transition design with its approaches of social practice theory and speculative design is explored through empirical research to critically investigate the present and speculate food futures. The empirical research, situated in the everyday context of supermarkets, investigates the practice of grocery shopping using social practice theory. The investigation helps identify opportunities for change and then engages multiple people in speculating alternative futures that take into account these opportunities. Two co-speculative workshops based on the combined principles of speculative design and participatory design create spaces for reflection and discussion to envision sustainable futures in the context of supermarkets.Their visions are presented in the form of 6 scenarios that narrate the future through the medium of storytelling. While social practice theory helps in moving beyond the individual-level analysis and the resulting opportunities identified challenge current structures and paradigms. The co-speculative workshops highlight the potential of bringing people together to imagine alternative futures. These have the potential to bring individual-level changes through engaging in future-oriented conversations and global-level changes through the principle of ‘scaling out’. The 6 scenarios present glimpses of the future that can further aid conversations and engagements with a larger audience and can be used by key decision-makers as a starting point for creating sustainability transition pathways.Description
Supervisor
Solsona Caba, NúriaThesis advisor
Tiilikainen, SannaKeywords
transition design, speculative design, social practice theory, design for sustainability transitions, future scenarios, participatory design