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Transition Design
Research Summary
This study reimagines and brings regenerative and restorative practices in the African mineral resource landscape within the extractive sector into conversation with design by interrogating theories of change and crafting equitable visions of African minerals for both human and non-human actors. This research seeks to improve and redesign better systems for unsustainable mineral extraction, production, use, and disposal practices reproduced by the logic of extraction through a design-led approach. It aims to materialize new ways of designing new mineral resource epistemologies through a place-based lens, while exploring the role of African minerals in sustainable transitions to low-carbon futures and ultimately transitioning toward a post-extractive epoch.
Research Question
How can Transition Design mitigate or proactively address unsustainable mineral resource practices in local African communities, and what are the implications of Design for local- to global mineral-to-material flow?
To answer these questions, I undertook a practice-based investigation into the mineral resource choreographies/trajectories across two continents ( Africa and America) in an attempt to activate the design(s) for /towards phase transitions through new mineral-oriented ontologies that can materialize sustainable conditions by conducting studies at extraction, Consumption, and disposal sites while also investigating entrepreneurship, education, and governance role in this choreography.
Mineral Choreography: Designing Transitions for Mineral Trajectories
Minerals are crucial to modern life because of the materials they produce and the technologies they enable. Yet, their extraction, production, consumption, and waste disrupt communities’ social, ecological, and cultural well-being, especially in local African mining communities. Meanwhile, the increasing rise of consumerism fueled by growth-oriented capitalism amplifies climate change, labor exploitation and accelerates the depletion of mineral resources for short-lived products, which destroys the natural world to create the artifice–our built world.
The failures of sustainable development practices related to extractivism indicate ontological design challenges with our relationship to minerals and the environment. These challenges involve how resource extraction influences and is influenced by specific worldviews, such as the logic of the capital and core-periphery ideologies that shape our built environment. In the modern capitalist global system, these worldviews reverberate with particular intensity in Africa, where mining communities are trapped in an endless cycle of extractive obesity.
This research examines the unsustainable trajectories of current extractive systems and investigates how specific ontologies shape them. It explores how design can be used to reframe our relationship with resources for global sustainability and local sustenance, ultimately moving towards a post-extractive transition. Drawing from African Decolonial Theory, Ontological Design, and Systems Design, I employ a mixed-methods, place-based, and liberatory research methodology across two groups: artisanal mining communities in the Kono district of Sierra Leone (provinces, sacrifice zones, and bodies) and large American cities (metropolises, privilege zones, and bodies) that consume these minerals as finished products. I introduce Minerality as an approach to explore the relational web between minerals, human societies, and the built world, facilitating conversations towards sustainable practices. I investigate minerality through field research studies spanning extraction, consumption, disposal sites, entrepreneurship, governance design, and education and pedagogy.
Drawing from these insights, “mineral choreographies” have emerged as a mechanism for exposing the current detrimental practices and, by doing so, identifying leverage points to re-root and recraft sustainable pathways towards new mineral epistemologies. Using mineral choreography, I propose four strategic pathways for designers, researchers, entrepreneurs, local communities, industry professionals, and policymakers to apply: 1) promoting sustainable mineral use by raising awareness of the mineral footprint in extraction, distribution, and disposal among consumers; 2) encouraging a new mindset and responsibility for designers towards responsible material practices in mineral-centered design; 3) pursuing resource decolonization through decentralized, community-driven resource infrastructure in local contexts; and 4) exploring alternative transition pathways from extractivism to post-extractive worldbuilding. This transdisciplinary approach focuses on holistic well-being, bridges economic disparities, and promotes regenerative practices for African communities to thrive now and beyond extractivism. The ecology of interventions offers practical applications for minerals dependent on technology development as we move towards green transitions.
Keywords: Design for sustainability, Extractivism, Post-extractivism, Distributed Systems, African Decolonial Theories, Extractive Capitalism, Co-Design Systems