Inclusion as Agencies in Friction

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Published: Sep 12, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7764/disena.27.Article.1
Keywords:
design research, negotiation, plurality, more-than-human, contestation investigación en diseño, negociación, pluralidad, más-que-humano, impugnación

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Isaac Arturo Ortega Alvarado
Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5225-4999
Manisha Rayaprolu
Department of Design, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3487-2750
Gunika Rishi
Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3707-3812
Berilsu Tarcan
Department of Design, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8675-9648
June Kyong Trondsen
Department of Design, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2817-2862
María Andrea Valladares Noguera
Department of Design, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
https://orcid.org/0009-0006-4227-9582

Abstract

Inclusivity is a contemporary social discourse that calls for practices enabling equal, just, or fair access to resources and opportunities. Designers and researchers are increasingly requested and pressured to take an active role as agents of inclusion. However, many current framings take positive outlooks at face value and do not address the root causes of exclusion. As researchers affiliated with design, we offer a critical discussion of this concept by problematizing and reflexively engaging with it. We position the argument that inclusion is always a meeting of agencies. Instead of striving to adopt and affirm ideal types, we acknowledge the value of recognizing the agencies made visible through frictions, which invite possibilities for negotiation and refusal as outcomes. Hence, inclusion frames relational practices with results that cannot be controlled―meaning that positive and negative effects coexist as part of social dynamism.

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How to Cite
Ortega Alvarado, I. A., Rayaprolu, M., Rishi, G., Tarcan, B., Trondsen, J. K., & Valladares Noguera, M. A. (2025). Inclusion as Agencies in Friction. Diseña, (27), Article.1. https://doi.org/10.7764/disena.27.Article.1
Issue
No. 27 (2025): Affirmation? How to Learn to Live with ‘The Others’ Through Design (2nd Issue)
Section
Original Articles (part 1)
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Author Biographies

Isaac Arturo Ortega Alvarado, Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University

Design and sustainability researcher. Postdoctoral Researcher at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Faculty of Geoscience, University of Utrecht. He holds a PhD in Design from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology; a Master of Science degree in Industrial Design from Anadolu University; and two Bachelor’s degrees: one in Industrial Design Engineering from Tecnológico de Costa Rica and one in Communication Sciences from Universidad de Costa Rica. His research interest contributes to design studies, drawing inspiration from Science and Technology Studies and questioning why, what, and how things get made from social constructivist perspectives. His current research examines the constructive aspects of a project aimed at phasing out animal use in chemical risk assessment. Some of his latest publications include: ‘The Role Given to Citizens in Shaping a Circular City’ (co-authored with I. N. Pettersen; in Urban Geography, Vol. 45, Issue 4) and ‘(In)Compatibility of the Market with Sufficiency: Applying a Systemic Lens on Markets’ (in Sufficiency in Business, Transcript, 2024).

Manisha Rayaprolu, Department of Design, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Researcher and urban practitioner. She holds a Master’s of Science degree in Human-environment Relations from Cornell University, a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture and Fine Arts University, and is currently a PhD candidate at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Her research and professional interests center on sustainability and inequity within the built and natural environments in majority-worlds/global South contexts. She is inspired by―and contributes to―critiques of current infrastructural and developmental practices and paradigms. Her research critiques the roles that participatory design practices and researchers can play in transnational renewable energy projects aimed at advancing ‘sustainable’ ‘development’.

Gunika Rishi, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

PhD candidate at the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). She holds a Master’s degree in Urban Planning from NTNU and a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Chitkara University. Her research interests include refugee and urban studies, gender, everyday life, kinship, caste, and politics of space. Her work explores the lived experiences and aspirations of unaccompanied refugee minors in Norway, using narratives and visual methods. Her latest publications include: ‘Prototyping Future Societies: GIGA-mapping and Narratives as Design Material’ (co-authored with B. Nielsen and M. Bjerck; in Proceedings of the Design Society 2024, Vol. 4).

Berilsu Tarcan, Department of Design, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Design researcher and maker. Practice-based PhD candidate at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. An industrial designer from Anadolu University, holds a Master of Science degree from İzmir Institute of Technology. Her research interests include textiles, craft-design relationships, material culture, traditional ecological knowledge, and posthuman theories. Her PhD thesis aims to understand the agencies of felting in more-than-human worlds, through the lens of materials, motifs, and geographies, contributing to post- and de-anthropocentric discourses in design. She has participated in artistic residencies at Nida Art Colony and Elpa Residency, where she critically examined the paradoxes of making practices, focusing on how wool is transformed into unrecognizable forms within the felting craft. Some of her recent publications include: ‘Change and Transformation of Functions in Turkey’s Felt Objects’ (FormAkademisk, Vol.16, Issue 4); ‘Repositioning Craft and Design in the Anthropocene’ (co-authored with I. N. Pettersen and F. Edwards; in Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, Vol. 10, Issue 2); and ‘Making-with The Environment through More-than-human Design’ (co-authored with I. N. Pettersen and F. Edwards, DRS 2022).

June Kyong Trondsen, Department of Design, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Design thinker and practitioner. She holds a Master’s degree (MSc) in Industrial Design Engineering from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and is pursuing a PhD in the Department of Design at NTNU. Her PhD project explores the role of shame in design, examining its entanglement with societal norms, narratives, and cultural values. She investigates the production of shame within socio-political contexts, exploring how an interdisciplinary, rhizomatic understanding of shame can provide a critical lens for challenging conventional design outputs. Some of her latest publications include: ‘Shame Cues: Detecting Shame in Disguise and Playing with New Perspectives to Inform the Design Process’ (Proceedings of the Design Society 2024, Vol. 4); ‘Pee Poo Period: Exploring the Intersection between Shame, Bodily Fluids, and Sustainable Design’ (co-authored with L. Herweyers, C. Boks, and E. Du Bois; in Cumulus Conference 2023); and ‘Exploring the Role of Shame in Design Strategies’ (co-authored with C. Boks; in Proceedings of the Design Society 2022, Vol. 2).

María Andrea Valladares Noguera, Department of Design, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Design and architecture practitioner and researcher. PhD candidate in the Department of Design at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. She holds a Master of Arts in Creative Sustainability from the Design Department of Aalto University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Universidad del Istmo. Focused on public participation and sustainability, she has applied design strategies in innovation projects aimed at strengthening municipal and neighborhood sustainability through participatory approaches. Her PhD elevates reflections from her practice, exploring how design engages in municipality strengthening and how it could support sustainability strategies that can be positively developed within local governments.

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