22 Jan 2026 @B3 Building
Infrastructuring, Institutioning, and Commoning: a Participatory Design perspective on doing research with collectives
Maurizio Teli,
Associate Professor in the Department of Sustainability and Planning at Aalborg University, Denmark
6.00 PM (CET)
B3 Building, Campus Durando
Abstract
This lecture will focus on three processes that are co-present when conducting Participatory Design (henceforth, PD) research with collectives: infrastructuring, institutioning, and commoning. The term collective is used to refer to the complexity of entities involved in PD, ranging from human actors to more-than-human entities. When engaging with collectives, PD researchers participate in processes of infrastructuring—that is, the ensemble of practices aimed at designing, maintaining, and expanding the infrastructures that bring or hold collectives together. Infrastructuring processes often entail relationships with existing or new institutions, a dynamic captured by the verbification institutioning. Moreover, researchers engage with the socio-economic aspects of transforming the world through design, where the concept of commoning emphasizes social values over economic ones. Through a brief overview of these concepts, supported by examples drawn from decades of research experience, the lecture aims to foster a conversation on the position of PD researchers within complex networks of processes and entities.
Bio of Maurizio Teli
Maurizio Teli is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sustainability and Planning at Aalborg University, Denmark, where he leads the newly established “Re-TECH – Responsible Technology Futures” research group. His research, strongly rooted in the tradition of Participatory Design, focuses on the relationships between PD practices, institutions, grassroots initiatives, and more-than-human entities.
