Troubling the Impact of Food Future Imaginaries – a full paper co-cooked by creatures from the Experimental Food Design for Sustainable Futures ExP has been published in the proceedings of the Nordes 2021 conference.

The paper speaks about & through food to lay the ground for a larger transformative design research agenda, drawing on a proposed 4-step transition process.

Abstract available below; full paper (open access) can be downloaded here.

Troubling the Impact of Food Future Imaginaries – Abstract

“Global scale transformation is urgently required if we hope to stabilise socio-ecological systems. While design contributes to social and ecological un-sustainability, it can also play a pivotal role in bringing us towards more positive, inclusive ways of living and being within the planetary ecosystem. Experimental, co-creative design provides powerful tools for prompting critical thinking and inspiring new imaginaries. We engage with these possibilities, and explore their role in societal transition. We present an experimental food design workshop that aims to engender fantastical and plausible possibilities for regenerative (more-than-human) future food practices. We reflect on how to move from such imaginaries to ‘implementable nows’ that is, transformative innovations that might be enacted today. We provide inspiration and methodological guidance for designers interested in the social imaginaries brought forth through world-making efforts; leapfrogging the adjacent possible and reorienting situated practices
towards better – socio-ecologically just – futures.”