The struggle for interdependence: On the impossibility of co-existence in postnormal societies
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About the talk:
The struggle for interdependence: On the impossibility of co-existence in postnormal societies
The idea of the “postnormal” has recently been put forward to capture the growing sense of ontological insecurity in contemporary Western societies. Here, everyday ways of doing, working and living are increasingly challenged, while underpinning mechanisms of solidarity, such as universal access to affordable housing, health care, green spaces and clean water are under threat, and the capacity of the state, science, industry and design to solve collective problems is called into question. In this talk, I will propose that this postnormal condition can be understood in terms of a struggle over interdependence: while environmental fragility raises existential challenges for some, others consider disruptions of normal life offensive and respond through heightened commitment to proceed "as usual." I will examine how struggles over interdependence unfold in everyday living environments and identify a series of challenges they pose for "more-than-human" thinking in social research and design. I will argue that current efforts to realise material democracy in technology-intensive, ecologically challenged societies, if they are to succeed, will need to expand beyond an ethical commitment to ecological inclusion and engage with existential threats as objects of political contestation.
About the speaker:
Noortje Marres
Noortje Marres is Professor in Science, Technology and Society in the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies at the University of Warwick (UK), and the author of Material Participation (2012) and Digital Sociology (2017). In her work, Marres studies the intersections of innovation, politics, environment, and everyday life, investigating the emergence of new forms of object-oriented engagement with public affairs in technological societies and how real-world testing in social environments like roads transforms the background conditions of collective life. Noortje has collaborated extensively with designers in developing research methodologies such as issue mapping and situational analytics. She is currently a Visiting Professor in the Centre for the Media of Cooperation at the University of Siegen (Germany).
About the host:
Sampsa Hyysalo
Sampsa Hyysalo is a professor of co-design and head of research at Aalto University, Department of design. He is the author of Design Participation (2025) and Citizen Activities in Energy Transition (2021), and The New Production of Users (2016), which investigate the designer-user relations and how they affect sociotechnical change. His works bridge Design Research and Science & Technology Studies and contribute to the analysis of alternative ways of organizing participation in design, as well as to the development of new participatory formats, for instance, in governing sustainability transitions.
About the panelists:
Guy Julier
Guy Julier is a professor of design culture at Aalto University, and author of Economies of Design (2017) and The Culture of Design (2014). Julier researches global changes in design, economics and society and has been credited with having established Design Culture as a research field. During his time in Leeds Metropolitan University, he founded and directed DesignLeeds, a cross-disciplinary research and consultancy unit specializing in social design. Julier, together with Lucy Kimbell, have led initiatives and projects developing cross-disciplinary thinking and methods in social design.
Helena Valve
Helena Valve is a principal researcher at the Finnish Environment Institute. She is a social scientist with extensive experience in environmental policy research, whose work draws from science and technology studies, as well as human geography and policy studies. She researches topics ranging from circular economy solutions to ecosystem restoration and biodiversity action. Through a focus on knowledge (co)production, material (re)ordering and policy instrumentation, Valve contributes to the analysis of power and politics in environmental governance.
About the talk series:
Design Interrupted: Conversations for a 21st Century World
Today, the study and practice of design are in great flux. We are amidst the biggest socio-economic transformation since the 1750s, experiencing the fifth Industrial Revolution. There is a growing pressure to transition economies driven by extractive, wasteful and polluting logics towards systems designed to fit the planetary limits. Such transformation requires the design of new types of products and services, as well as new systems and approaches to large-scale changes.
At the same time, design as a practice area is also changing. It is shifting away from a more rigidly defined practice of professionally trained designers creating graphics, objects and spaces towards a practice that is loosely defined, fuzzy and seemingly omnipresent. Many have been calling for democratizing design and recognizing the efforts of non-professional designers. Design thinking, methods and practices have entered many contexts, including governance, jurisprudence, sciences and activism. The design community has been grappling with the ever-expanding definitions of what design is and who a designer is.
This talk series invites design professionals, students, academics and anyone interested in these challenges to a series of conversations. Each event features a scene-setting lecture by a leading practitioner and thinker followed by open discussion. Three themes give focus to the series: digital, societal and material transformations. What is design’s role in these transformations? How do we generate new know-how to support the needed transitions, and what examples already exist that we can learn from? What stands in the way of progress towards equitable, diverse, and sustainable lives, and what is the role of design in removing such blockages? What are design and designers in this new context?
Department of Design at Aalto University invites you to join our conversations to explore what design is, can and should be in the 21st Century.
