What ethical challenges emerge from the growing demand for critical raw materials, and how can Design for Values contribute to addressing their social and environmental impacts? How can perspectives that are often marginalized in discussions of technological innovation, climate change, and resource governance be meaningfully integrated into design processes?
These questions have guided the Delft Design for Values Seed Project Design for Values and Critical Raw Materials: Decolonial Justice Perspectives. The project explored the ethical, political, and epistemic dimensions of critical raw materials, examining how resource extraction and supply chains are intertwined with broader questions of global justice, colonial legacies, and climate transitions.
Drawing on decolonial justice perspectives, the project investigated how dominant development paradigms can reproduce unequal power relations and forms of green colonialism. The project sought to expand Design for Values by engaging with questions of global justice, value pluralism, Indigenous knowledge, and alternative understandings of human–nature relationships on methodological, conceptual, and social engagement levels. Methodologically, the project combined collaborative engagement with Indigenous and artistic partners with emerging approaches such as LLM-assisted text analysis to examine narratives surrounding critical raw materials and climate transitions. Conceptually, the project explored the intersections between Design for Values, decoloniality, extractivism, and global justice. Socially, it fostered new co-creative engagements among researchers, Indigenous organizations, artists, students, and civil society actors, creating a foundation for future research and allyship initiatives.
An important objective of the project was to build bridges with partners whose voices are often underrepresented in discussions of technology and energy transitions. Through these efforts, the project established partnerships with Indigenous organization MABIKAs Foundation, laying the groundwork for the NWO-funded Indigenous Liberation Month × Just Transitions initiative within the Klimaatonderzoek Initiatief Nederland (KIN) network. Bringing together Indigenous leaders, researchers, engineers, artists, students, and civil society organizations, this initiative resulted in a range of public engagement activities, including the co-created documentary Re-rooting: Indigenous Perspectives on Just Transitions.
The project also fostered co-creative engagement with the Ecuadorian arts collective SolipsisArt, whose work covers themes of territory, extractivism, memory, and social justice. These exchanges informed the development of the VSD Envisioning Cards: Global Extension Set, an extension of the Value Sensitive Design toolkit that introduces themes such as extractivism, colonial histories, power and privilege, positionally, global inequalities, and plural knowledge systems.
The closing event presents these interconnected project outcomes through a combination of presentations, documentary screening, and interactive engagement. Participants will have the opportunity to reflect on the project’s findings, explore new tools for Design for Values practice, and discuss future directions for integrating decolonial justice perspectives into engineering, design, and climate transitons research.
Programme
12:00–12:30 – Welcome and lunch
12:30–12:50 – Introduction and project reflections
12:50–13:30 – Presentation:
Exploring Biases in the Western Development Paradigm: Traces of Green Colonialism in Engineering and Policy Discourse
13:30–13:45 – Break
13:45–15:15 – Documentary Screening:
Re-rooting: Indigenous Perspectives on Just Transitions
15:15–15:30 – Break
15:30–17:00 – Interactive Workshop:
VSD Envisioning Cards: The Global Extension Set
17:00–17:30 – Final discussion and closing reflections
Registration
Please register via this link.
If you have any questions about the event, please contact the project lead:
Anna Melnyk
We warmly welcome researchers, students, practitioners, and anyone interested in Design for Values, climate transitions, environmental justice, and decolonial approaches to technology and design.
We look forward to reflecting together on the project’s outcomes and future directions for Design for Values research and practice.
With gratitude to Verónica Alvear (@vero_tifa), @SolipsisArt, for the artwork featured in this event communication.
