IT Design and changing institutions: The case of Commonfare

Venue: Ferrari 1 building, via Sommarive 5, Povo (Trento) - Room Garda
Time:11.30 am

Speaker 

• Maurizio Teli - Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute, Portugal

Abstract

Digital platforms interact with existing institutions in different ways, relying on some - e.g. the financial market - and weakening others - e.g. labor protection laws. In this context, the field of Participatory Design (PD) has recently seen efforts to reinvigorate its political capacity. This seminar presents a renewed political agenda of PD and how it intersects with processes of building and changing institutioning. To do that, I will refer to an European-funded project called Commonfare, aimed at designing a digital platform fostering the emergence of a new economic model in the domain of the institutions of the welfare state. We conclude by discussing how a PD political agenda based on the critique of the current forms of capitalism aligns with or challenges existing institutional frames, supporting the emergence of new institutions.

About the Speaker

Maurizio Teli is currently Assistant Professor at the Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute, Portugal, and will soon become Associate Professor of Techno-Anthropology at the Aalborg University, Denmark. He holds a PhD in Sociology and Social Research and has always worked in interdisciplinary contexts focusing on the political dimensions of the production and use of digital technologies. He has worked in or coordinated a few EU funded projects. He is now focusing on the design of politically-engaged digital technologies, in particular as Research and Innovation Coordinator of the PIE News H2020 project.

Contact: vincenzo.dandrea [at] unitn.it (Vincenzo D'Andrea)