Seminar 3: Learning from Experts

Semester 2 · 96118 · Master in Eco-Social Design · 2CP · EN

Along with the work on their projects and the regular courses, students choose Short Seminars, which provide complementary competencies helping them to sharpen their practice. The seminar in Learning from Experts provides a stage for students to engage directly with practitioners in the field of eco-social design. Through interviews, visits, and online sessions with experts working across diverse sectors with an eco-social design focus (such as community-led development, public sector, social entrepreneurship, activism, industry, research, etc.), students gain first-hand insights into real-world practices, challenges, and strategies. They learn how different professionals approach the design and implementation of eco-social projects, what methodologies they use, and how they design within complex systems.

Lecturers: Flora Mammana

Teaching Hours: 18
Lab Hours: 0
Mandatory Attendance: mandatory

Course Topics
Eco-Social Design & Practice; Mapping Professional Pathways; Methods for Engaged Dialogue; Case-study analysis; Collaborative Knowledge Generation; Feminist Qualitative Research; Transmission; Collective Zine / Instant Journal Making.

Teaching format
This short seminar is conceived as an intensive, practice-oriented learning format centered on direct exchange with practitioners in Eco-Social design. Through curated video inputs, live online conversations, and in-person encounters, students engage with diverse fields such as community-led initiatives, public-sector innovation, activism, social entrepreneurship, and research. The seminar follows an ethical, dialogical, and non-extractive approach to learning from experts. Students explore how to approach practitioners with contextual sensitivity, formulate respectful invitations, and design encounters grounded in reciprocity and care. Knowledge is understood as relational and situated — generated through attentive listening, collective reflection, and shared interpretation. Inspired by Kat Jungnickel’s concept of Transmissions, the seminar interweaves researching, making, and disseminating. Creative and experimental methods — including mapping, structured listening, short writing sessions, observation, and visual documentation — support collaborative knowledge production and critical engagement with contemporary Eco-Social challenges. The seminar culminates in the collaborative development of a fanzine that documents insights, reflects students’ perspectives back to the invited experts, and contributes to broader knowledge generation and dissemination within the field of Eco-Social Design.

Educational objectives
Knowledge and understanding Students of the Master in Eco-social Design will have developed their own individual project practice and will be able to: - design, implement and manage projects - initiate, carry out and lead project-oriented research, development and design activities - involve stakeholders and actors in projects, identify their needs, conflicts and potentials and work productively with them - working with different experts, companies, organisations, groups and people Applying knowledge and understanding Students will be able to develop projects and practices suitable for addressing complex challenges. Making judgements Students will be able to take responsibility for the development and management of projects and activities. Communication skills Students will be able to: - communicate convincingly in different ways and with different audiences - present projects convincingly - argue creative and strategic decisions - show how the social, ecological and economic aspects of sustainability interact in their projects - organising and/or moderating discussions and creative processes among project stakeholders - communicate productively within the team - lead creative processes and teams Learning skills Students will be able to working independently to learn according to different situations and in a personal way through experimentation and planning.

Additional educational objectives and learning outcomes
Engage with practitioners using an ethical, dialogical, and non-extractive approach. Contextualize Eco-Social practices within broader social, political, and ecological challenges. Apply creative and collaborative methods for knowledge production and documentation. Reflect on and position their own emerging practice within Eco-Social transformation processes.

Assessment
As part of the assessment, students work in teams to develop pages for the final publication (fanzine). These pages present the invited practitioner’s practice and the conversations, and include the students’ own critical reflections using diverse creative transmission techniques (visual, textual, and experimental formats). The completed pages must be submitted prior to the examination date, as specified during the seminar. During the exam, each team gives an oral presentation summarizing the practitioner exchange and reflecting on key insights and learning outcomes.

Evaluation criteria
Student work will be assessed according to three main criteria: - Participation and timeliness: Active engagement throughout the seminar and submission of work by the specified deadlines. - Documentation quality: Completeness and accuracy in recording the practitioner conversation. - Analytical and creative depth: Critical reflection, thoughtful analysis, and the use of diverse, creative methods for presenting insights.

Required readings

Brown, V. A., Harris, J. A., & Russell, J. Y. (Eds.). (2010). Tackling wicked problems: Through the transdisciplinary imagination. Earthscan / Routledge. (Routledge)

Jungnickel, K. (Ed.). (2020). Transmissions: Critical tactics for making and communicating research. The MIT Press. (MIT Press)

Waerea, K. (n.d.). Access questions for self-publishing [Audiobook]. SoundCloud. https://soundcloud.com/kaiya-waerea-50748159/sets/access-questions-for-self-publishing

Supplementary readings

Böhm, K., Petrescu, D., & James, T. (Eds.). (2017). Learn to act: Introducing the Eco-Nomadic School. PEPRAV. (Rural School of Economics)

Escobar, A., Osterweil, M., & Sharma, K. (2024). Relationality: An emergent politics of life beyond the human. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Mareis, C., & Paim, N. (Eds.). (2021). Design struggles: Intersecting histories, pedagogies, and perspectives. Valiz.

von Busch, O., & Palmås, K. (2023). The corruption of co-design: Political and social conflicts in participatory design thinking. Routledge

Zukunfts*archiv Kollektiv (2023). Carrierbag for feminist collaboration (https://zukunftsarchiv.org/publikationen/)

References (suggested reading)

Abu-Lughod, L. (1991). Writing against Culture. In R. G. Fox (Ed.), Recapturing Anthropology.

Choo, H. (2010). Feminist Research Practice. University of Chicago Press.

Collins, P. H. (2000). Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. Routledge.

Fonow, M. M., & Cook, J. A. (2005). Feminist Methodology: New Applications in the Academy and Public Policy. University of Illinois Press.

Harding, S. (1991). Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? Thinking from Women’s Lives. Cornell University Press.

Haraway, D. (1988). Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective. Feminist Studies, 14(3), 575–599.

Lorde, A. (1984). Sister Outsider. Crossing Press.

Oakley, A. (1981). Interviewing Women: A Contradiction in Terms. In H. Roberts (Ed.), Doing Feminist Research. Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Reinharz, S. (1992). Feminist Methods in Social Research. Oxford University Press.

Tuhiwai Smith, L. (1999). Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. Zed Books.

Tuck, E., & Yang, K. W. (2014). R-Words: Refusing Research. In Humanizing Research: Decolonizing Qualitative Inquiry with Youth and Communities.

1. Feminist Ethos for Caring Knowledge Production

A feminist framework for collaborative, caring research relationships and epistemic justice.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11625-021-01064-0

2. Feminisms, Intersectionality, and Participatory Research

Explores how feminist and intersectional lenses enrich participatory and co-creative research and prioritize relationships and power awareness.

https://www.participatorymethods.org/resource/feminisms-intersectionality-and-participatory-research/

3. The Ethics of Knowledge Sharing: A Feminist Examination

A current review of how feminist approaches question dominant knowledge sharing norms, open access, and power relations in research.

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/research-metrics-and-analytics/articles/10.3389/frma.2024.1321302/full

4. Reflexivity, Embodiment, and Ethics of Care in Co-Production

Reflects on feminist epistemologies like reflexivity and care in participatory, co-created knowledge practices.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fhumd.2023.1144668/full

Download as pdf

Sustainable Development Goals
This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the following Sustainable Development Goals.

8 17