Ton Otto

Design Anthropological Futures explores futures and future-making from a design anthropological perspective. Here futures are not understood as striking visions created and implemented by scientists or designers, but rather as collaborative explorations of situated possibilities, formations and actions at the intersection of design and everyday life. The term futures relates both to the theoretical and practical engagement of design anthropology with futures and future-making as a subject – futures in design anthropology – and to the exploration of possible future directions for the discipline itself through such engagements – futures of design anthropology. Through various design anthropological investigations at specific sites – from care homes to corporate organizations, eco-homes to museums, Rio de Janeiro to Italy – this book critically addresses a number of dominant perspectives on, and approaches to, futures, including implied assumptions of singularity, linearity, locality and novelty. In the following we briefly elaborate on these themes and propose alternative perspectives for a design anthropological approach to futures.