Conference presentation about anticipation in design justice

Dr. Mejía will present a conference paper in November about how to use anticipation to design just futures at the 4th International Conference on Anticipation 2022 at Arizona State University. The paper is titled "Anticipatory justice in design speculation."

Abstract. All design practices have a future orientation. While designers are not intentionally causing harms, design artifacts are regularly reproducers of social injustices in the future. This paper questions of how futures methods could support design for justice. Anticipation of the future is a process of identifying probable and plausible futures to inform decisions in the present. On the other hand, design speculation is an imaginative process to generate and make preferable futures. Designers can use anticipation, specifically, in the evaluation of design proposals, which would help their efforts to make just futures. Ethical designers speculate preferable futures, assume a political posture, anticipate plausible harms, and improve their proposals for justice.