520. FUTURES 4. Seeds of change (United Kingdom). A talk with Eloise Smith-Foster

Eloise Smith-Foster is an Activist, Designer, Futures Facilitator and Co-founder of Design Activists for Regenerative Futures (DARF). As Lead Service Designer at Futurice in 2021, she facilitated the Wales ‘Voluntary Sector Futures’ 2030 cross-sector partnership initiated by the Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA), which has since been recognised as an international benchmark for Futures Thinking best practice and impact. She shares in this interview the futures work done with the voluntary sector and her views on the future. She led the design of a process which mixes different methodologies, integrating systems change practices and futures thinking with human-centered design. The work was guided by both the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales frameworks and Design Justice Principles. For insight into approaches discussed in the podcast, Eloise highly recommends looking to some of the incredible practitioners she’s learned from: this critical paper and work by key trauma-responsive design research founder Rachael Dietkus, and Pause and Effect for incisive courses on liberating and decolonizing research, design and futures. For anyone involved in sustainability, the 'Intro to Decolonial Sustainability' learning journey by POSSIBLE FUTURES is invaluable.
*Note: Eloise shared a credit correction for the conversation - "a world where many worlds fit" is quoted in Arturo Escobar's book 'Designs for the Pluriverse' and originates from the Zapatista.

This is the 4th episode of the serie Futures, in which we interview key players in the design scene working in the public sector in Europe. We have plan this serie with Anni Leppänen as part of her larger research for understanding the current change in the government and the design sector. We wanted to envision collaboratively how this could be in 2030.  This serie has interviews describing cases in Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, and the UK.

This interview is part of the lists: Futures, Reino Unido y diseño, Diseño y gobierno y  Diseño y políticas públicas, D&D in English The lists can be found in Spotify, Youtube and our website.