Designing More Playful Democracies
PhD Defense
In his thesis, ’The Junk Playground as Agora: Designing for Playful Democratic Frictions’, Mathias Poulsen explores how playing with discarded materials might inspire new forms of democratic participation and new conceptions of democracy.
Inspired by the tradition of ‘skrammellegepladser’ (‘junk playgorunds’), Mathias has co-designed a series of experiments where both adults and children have conducted playful inquiries into mattes of common concern. In the playgrounds, people have engaged with each other, the materials, and a range of democratic issues, telling stories and making arguments, both with and without words.
Based on these empirical experiments, Mathias proposed the concept of ‘playful democratic friction’ to suggest that the playgrounds regularly generated a friction with conventional ideas of what constitutes democracy and democratic participation. By developing a more flexible and dynamic conception of democracy, the project creates new openings for people to participate in democratic conversations and for more diverse democratic imaginaries to blossom.
Programme 9 April 2024
13.00: Welcome / Professor Helle Marie Skovbjerg, Design School Kolding
13.05: Lecture / PhD student Mathias Poulsen
13.45: Examination / Professor Stacy Holman Jones, Monash University, Australia
14.15: Break
14.30: Examination / Associate Professor Sonia Bussu, University of Birmingham
15.00: Examination / Associate Professor Canan Akoglu, Design School Kolding
15.30: Comments from the audience
16.00: Closing remarks / Professor Helle Marie Skovbjerg, Design School Kolding
The defense is followed by a reception.
Location: Design School Kolding, Dyrehavevej 116, 6000 Kolding
