What is This

Postgrad Interest Group at Universities

Design students are prompted to be critical in our practice and to address social, political and environmental challenges in our world.

But,

Who can afford to be critical after graduation?

Can design really live outside the commodity machine?

What are our preferable systems if we are dissatisfied with the present?

This interest group is a space of learning and solidarity for current and past MA and PhD students who are experimenting with using design for a postcapitalist transition.

Whether this is through thesis projects, design challenges, innovation jams, roundtable discussions, or other activities, this interest group offers a platform for collective action and peer support.

The first group was started in the University of the Arts London (UAL) in October 2023. Check out how to start your own chapter of a Postcapitalist Designers Fight Club at your university or institution.

Why A Fight Club?

Connect with others with similar research/practice interests

We may have vastly different design practices, ranging from products, services, graphics, spaces, experiences and everything else. Yet we are connected by a belief that design can be used for social and environmental good. What good might emerge if a variety of disciplines are connected by a common ‘why’?

Explore new theories with more than just your own worldview

Find a richer, more critical and less lonely approach to studying and testing new design theories by doing it within a group. Epistemologies? Transitions? Anthropocene? Capitalocene? Pluriverse? Make sense of critical design theories through multiple viewpoints.

Network as a collective

It’s difficult to find partners, network and support for the projects and initiatives we take on as students. Some of us come from different countries and contexts and there’s only so much one can do by stalking people on LinkedIn and sending cold messages begging for collaboration. As a collective, we can extend our reach and open doors for each other.

Solidarity and community

Within academia, we get the privilege to be critical in our design practice. But out in the “real world”, can we really continue to be critical? Or would we simply be labelled as “thinking too much”? The existence of this club is evidence that we are not alone in our dissatisfaction of designing for status quo.

How We Organise

The Postcapitalist Designers Fight Club aspires to operate on a Teal organisation model.

This means rather than a formal leadership structure, every member is a leader. Anyone can initiate a meetup, host an event, organise a panel discussion, collaborate with each other and more.

Small autonomous teams can be created and disbaned depending on needs, and these teams are free to self-organise and are not under authority of anyone outside the team. Is someone interested to run a learning circle? A team can be formed. Someone else wants a meetup? Invite a team together.

We coordinate with each other on WhatsApp. Come join to make fun of ourselves there but also maybe collaborate on cool stuff.

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Postcapitalist Designers Fight Club

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Postcapitalist Designers
Fight Club

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Rules