Designers roles in civic pedagogies of co-making: lessons from the Global South and North

This paper investigates how designer-led co-making and civic pedagogy can increase urban learning and resilience through transversal relationalities. We explore two case studies in which designers work with communities to run civic pedagogical projects, using co-making as a tool: Collective Design Practice, in Mumbai, India, co-produced with Muktangan school; and the Eco Nomadic school, situated in Europe. We use theories of agency, correspondence and care to compare the roles of designers and identify the particular moments (or “knots”) where resilience is created. Situated in the Global South and North, respectively, we identify, compare and discuss the research methods and processes used. The research asks how pedagogically supported and designer-led co-making can increase resilience in different parts of the world, particularly when it relates to everyday life. We propose that the civic pedagogy of co-making can be powerful: through it people can have more agency to improve social relations and politics of place; it can make tangible and more understandable political statements and make physically evident the benefits of practice; it can build civic practices of resourcefulness and resilience.