Monica Büscher, Department of Sociology, Lancaster University, UK was nominated as honorary doctor at Roskilde University’s annual festival September 16^th 2011 recommended by CBIT and ENSPAC. You can watch her guest lecture “Design futures: Mobilities in crisis” here:

Abstract:

Design futures: Mobilities in crises
The 21st Century is characterised by extraordinary but precarious mobilities. Design of refridgeration, aircraft, automobility systems, and advanced information and communication technologies has mobilized and connected people in unprecedented ways, enabling new forms of stretched, distributed and networked relationships. But what kinds of futures do these mobilities have? Many societies seem to be designing themselves and others into difficulties. Growing awareness of limited oil resources, and the dangers of CO2 emissions and air pollution (amongst other things) has inspired visions of mobility futures that are, each in their own way, grim: circulation of people, goods and information disrupted by environmental and political crises, a return to restrictively local ways of life, or a Faustian bargain that trades civil liberties for efficient, but super-surveilled, hyper-mobility for some (Dennis and Urry 2009). However, ‘if we can design our way into difficulty, [maybe] we can design our way out’ (Thackera 2005). In this talk I explore forms of collaborative, experimental and iterative design that try to shoulder some of the responsibility, with examples of mobilities in crises drawn from the Bridge project (http://www.bridgeproject.eu/).