When Anticipation and Design Epistemology Converge: Insights from a Futures Literacy Lab

Abstract

The fields of futures studies and design studies increasingly acknowledge the potential for collaboration in theoretical and practical domains. Designers are recognized as agents, who are privileged to select and prefer one possible future over another, producing it in material form. Therefore, they need tools to facilitate the critical reflection of their assumptions about futures. Such tools can be found in the field of futures studies. In turn, the field of design offers valuable elements beneficial for futures studies. Namely, design epistemology, as a way of knowing, can be integrated into futures research approaches. This integration can foster transformational and affective engagement by giving imagined futures a tangible form. Driven by this twofold motivation, this study takes an interdisciplinary approach and converges insights from both futures studies and design studies to make a methodological suggestion for a Futures Literacy Lab with Design Epistemology (FLL-DE). It develops the FLL-DE method and evaluates its trial execution with professional designers on a topic of “Futures of cities 2044”. The study offers several key findings. Firstly, it sheds light on the interrelation between anticipation and design epistemology in the proposed FLL-DE method. Essentially, their convergence shapes the process of artifact-reading anticipation, which involves producing knowledge about imagined futures through the making of artifacts and subsequent reflection. It allows participants to make tacit anticipatory assumptions explicit, critically assess, accept or challenge them, and build upon them. Secondly, the study suggests that participation in the FLL-DE is likely to develop the anticipatory capabilities of participants and evoke affection, leading to a sense of agency and motivation to act towards the desirable future. Thirdly, the findings indicate the potential for adjustment of designers’ “internal compasses” and daily practices as a result of participation in the FLL-DE. Lastly, the images of the future and corresponding anticipatory assumptions that emerged from this study are distinctive and elaborated and connect abstract aspects of futures with human-scale representations. This finding supports the value of applying design epistemology as a way of knowing in futures research. The principal contribution of this study is in the field of futures studies, adding to the body of research on different modes of knowing in the field. Besides, the results may be of interest in the field of design, as the FLL-DE may be utilized by professional designers to increase awareness of their anticipatory assumptions. This study recommends further investigations to establish the suitability of the proposed FLL-DE method for audiences beyond professional designers and to assess the potential for the full-length FLL-DE to enhance the depth of anticipatory assumptions elicited from artifact-reading anticipations.