Flourish Together

The first event in our online Design Summit series on the 18th March 2021 examines – What does it mean for us to flourish together? As a species, our ingenuity has transformed the way we connect and interact in profound ways. Yet despite all our progress we face huge challenges. In a world of increasing inequality and instability, how might we overcome the divisions that limit our collective actions to not simply survive but also thrive?

This invitation only event hosted by Professor Sir Christopher Frayling brings together distinguished experts from the International Design community. Bold and brilliant provocations from our esteemed guests and Imagination academics will stimulate positive debate.

Featuring provocations from:

Dr John Ehrenfeld, Author of The Right Way to Flourish: Reconnecting with the Real World will address Flourishing, Design, and the Brain.

Dr John R. Ehrenfeld returned to his alma mater, MIT, in 1985 after a long career in the environmental field, and retired in 2000 as the Director of the MIT Program on Technology, Business, and Environment. Following that, he served until 2009 as Executive Director of the International Society for Industrial Ecology, guiding its development from its founding in 2000. He continues to be engaged in thinking and writing about flourishing. He is the author of The Right Way to Flourish: Reconnecting with the Real World (2019), Sustainability by Design: A Subversive Strategy for Transforming our Consumer Culture (2008), and Flourish: A Frank Conversion about Sustainability (2013, with Andrew Hoffman).

Dr Mariana Amatullo, Vice Provost for Global Strategic Initiatives at Parsons School of Design, New York. Mariana’s provocation is titled: Embracing a Renewed Design Attitude to Flourish Together.

Dr Mariana Amatullo was elected President of Cumulus in June 2019 after serving two consecutive terms of service as a Cumulus board member starting in 2013. Mariana is Vice Provost for Global Strategic Initiatives and Associate Professor of Strategic Design and Management at Parsons School of Design, The New School, New York. Prior to joining The New School, she co-founded and led the award-winning social innovation department, Designmatters at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California. Mariana brings almost two decades of expertise managing a portfolio of international and national educational projects, research initiatives and publications at the intersection of design, design management and social innovation; her research focuses on the value of design in organizational transformation.

Nick Dunn, Professor of Urban Design and the Executive Director of ImaginationLancaster. Nick leads the City & Urban cluster in Imagination and will address Designing More-than-Human Places.

Boyeun Lee, a Research Associate in Prosperity and a member of the Prosperity & Evaluation theme in ImaginationLancaster.  Boyeun will pose the question – Can designers and AI flourish together in harmony?

Dr Rosendy Galabo, Post Doctoral Research Associate and a member of the Community & Public Sector Cluster in ImaginationLancaster will discuss Progressing capitalism through commOnism design.

Elisavet Christou, a Research Associate in Evaluation and a member of the Prosperity & Evaluation theme in ImaginationLancaster.  The title of Elisavet’s provocation is: Design Research that Fosters Recovery: A Cross-relational Effort.

Dr Naomi Jacobs, a lecturer in Design Policy and Futures Thinking and a member of the Population & Policy cluster. The title of Naomi’s provocation is: Might making connections also divide us?

Proceedings of all three Design Summits will be curated into a ImaginationLancaster Design Summit publication with unique contributions from speakers, hosts and esteemed guests.