Por uma politização do design: caminhos entre o feminismo e a educação popular

Abstract

The thesis presents reflections about the Design field and the possible political engagements from an exploratory and qualitative inquiry. The objective of this work is to reflect about the politicization of Design through the theoretical and practical assumptions of popular education and feminism. The investigative path was based on the political and methodological framework of Militant Research, which brings together educational, political and research actions in a collective and collaborative practice of knowledge production with social movements or collectivities in struggle. The research spaces were diverse and included actions of the researcher along with the International Development Design Summit, the Free Feminist University, the Design and Oppression Network, the Student Movement of the University of the State of Rio de Janeiro and the teaching work at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. The theoretical foundations on politicization that guide the thesis are drawn from debates in Latin American Popular Education and Feminism. In the scope of design, the questions are raised from theoretical-practical elaborations that are inserted in Participatory Design and Design Studies, especially those linked to the Latin American critical field and to discussions of Gender and Feminism. As a result, I argue that the processes of politicization of Design can happen from four axes of transformation: epistemology, ontology, conceptualization and practice. In each axis I present reflections that are based on the praxis of Militant Research and indicate paths for a possible politicization of the field.