I’m a designer, researcher, and facilitator. My research focuses on how design methods can help us build better, more just futures, particularly in the wake of austerity. Throughout my PhD, I worked with organizations that work with care-experienced young people to develop the grounded theory of ‘justification practices’, which describes how austerity necessitated a large-scale datafication of their practice that resulted in performative evaluation, a hostile working environment, and worse experiences for young people.

Through the It’s Our Future and fractured signals projects, I developed ‘speculative praxis’ as a method of countering these forces, focusing on opportunities for repair, capability-building, and the creation of new worlds. I drew upon design fictions, future-focused design methodologies, and emergent strategy to create experiences, tools, and technologies that help people to imagine and begin to build new worlds based on their lived experience.

I currently co-lead fractals co-op, a design, research and facilitation co-operative focused on using design-led tools to help organisations trying to make social change get unstuck.

Partners

• Barnardo’s