Solidarity economy is an approach for developing fair community exchanges and human development within capitalist societies, working as a semi-detached alternative economic circuit based on the principles of self-management. This talk summarizes the experience of the speaker in designing a self-management platform for solidarity economy circuits in Brazil, guided by the Latin-American ideal of liberation from oppression.

1. Designing for Liberation
in Solidarity Economy Circuits
Frederick van Amstel @fredvanamstel
Service Design and Experience Design
DADIN - UTFPR
www.fredvanamstel.com

2. The Egg Chair designed for the Radisson SAS Hotel (Arne
Jacobsen, 1959) and for Bolsonaro's presidential office.

3. The Egg Chair designed for the Radisson SAS Hotel (Arne
Jacobsen, 1959) and for Bolsonaro's presidential office.
Historically
privileged social
groups
Historically
underprivileged
social groups
Aesthetic
interactions

4. Historically
privileged social
groups
Historically
underprivileged
social groups
Design practice
that reproduces
oppression and
ignores
liberation
Design epistemologies
of the North
Design methodologies
of the North
Design practice
that fights
oppression and
seeks liberation
Design epistemologies
of the South
Design methodologies
of the South
Decolonization
Hybridization
Aesthetic
interactions
Designing for Liberation Research Program
2010-actual

5. The Designing for Liberation research program started in Faber-
Ludens Institute for Interaction Design around 2010, when we
decided to open the black box of design to the general public.

6. Faber-Ludens published a manifesto book in 2012 inspired by
Digital Culture, Participatory Design, and Free Software.

7. We could not do Design Livre with Google apps, so we
developed our own collaborative platform.

8. Corais Platform, a digital infrastructure for collaborative projects
of any kind, built with free software (2011-actual).

9. Social movements, indigenous communities, and popular
educators took over Corais, developing more than 700 projects.

10. Collaborative projects typically aim at creating or maintaining a
local and comunal resource or service.

11. In 2012, a group of cultural producers collaborated to develop a
social currency feature for self-management.

12. A member adds a task, another executes it, a third oversees
execution, and a fourth orders the payment.

13. The currency value is backed by the collective productive
capacity in a given period.

14. The collective productive capacity is calculated from
converging knowledge networks.

15. In solidarity economy, sharing is caring. If one knows
something, everybody can know that thing.

16. Key learning points
•Solidarity is not a natural feeling
•Cultivating solidarity within an capitalist economy
requires relentless resistance and critical
consciousness of reality
•Local symbols and rituals are very important
•Designers should not join as outside experts.
Instead become part of the economy and design
with solidarity economy, not for it

17. Recent work: participatory design of a self-management book
based on popular education principles (Hulyk, 2020).

18. Future: searching for a decolonized Aesthetics of the Oppressed
for Solidarity Economy (Angelon & Van Amstel, in press).

19. Thank you!
Frederick van Amstel @fredvanamstel
Service Design and Experience Design
DADIN - UTFPR
www.fredvanamstel.com