The rhetoric of today’s economy has framed entrepreneurship as a key contributor to inventing the future, which raises questions about who is... Show moreThe rhetoric of today’s economy has framed entrepreneurship as a key contributor to inventing the future, which raises questions about who is counted as an insider, how the future is being designed, and for whom. The concentration of future-making has too long been in the hands of a few, given future’s tremendous impact on the many. This dissertation joins the growing body of scholarly explorations on channeling the design capacity to transition toward a future with a plural world system, where the economy offers a multiplicity of possibilities. Central to this exploration is to rethink how shaping futures might be done differently, with different people, and in different forms.By incorporating feminist temporality, I challenge the established mode of design investigation. My empirical chapters demonstrate the ways in which sharpening our temporal sensitivity could impact what we study, how we study it, and what we can find. In particular, I rearrange the power dynamics in design activities by opening up the position of knower to the emerging collectives. I then introduce the concept of designing a time-space yet to come that makes you wonder—an open invitation to rethink who we are and what we want to become.While it remains to be seen whether this contribution will have a meaningful impact on design knowledge, I argue that it makes a solid case for incorporating feminism in design. Feminist theory offers the theoretical underpinning for ontological reframing of design and helps us understand what other forms of design practice are emerging in this era of increasing complexity. I conclude with my take on an emerging design practice where the fundamental element of design is to enable other ways of knowing to inquire about what they truly want to become. Show less
